UPDATE: 74% increase in allocation for Minority Affairs Ministry

In a move to send the right signals to the minorities, the government today announced a 74 per cent increase in the Plan outlay for the Minority Affairs Ministry.

"The Plan outlay for Ministry of Minority Affairs has been enhanced from Rs 1,000 crore in 2008-09 to Rs 1,740 crore in 2009-10 registering an increase of 74 per cent," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said presenting the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha.

The total allocation includes Rs 990 crore to be spent for multi-sectoral development programmes for the community in 90 minority-concentration districts.

The government has "almost doubled" grants-in-aid for Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF). The allocation also covers provisions for National Minority Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC) and pre- and post-Matric scholarships for the minorities.

Allocations have also been made for new schemes like National Fellowship for students and grants-in-aid to Central Wakf Council for computerisation of state Wakf Board records.

Mukherjee noted that the government has already allocated Rs 25 crore each for the two proposed campuses of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) at Murshidabad in West Bengal and Malappuram in Kerala.

However, BJP's Muslim face Shahnawaj Hussain found the allocations "too little".

"In India, there are 22 crore people belonging to minority communities and the allocation in this budget is only Rs 1,740 crore, which comes to only Rs 85 per head. This is less than the allocation under NREGA," Hussain told PTI.

During the budget speech, Mukherjee had missed out the portion concerning allocations for the Ministry, prompting Hussain to quip, "Bhoolna hi thaa to minority ko (You had to forget only the minority)."      The Finance Minister apologised for the slip and read out the paragraphs.

Taking a dig at Mukherjee, CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta told reporters that the Finance Minister was shedding "synthetic tears" for the minorities as he has allocated a "very meagre" amount for them.