The number of bank accounts belonging to minority communities and loans offered to them by banks have soared in the last 10 years of UPA rule, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said today as he highlighted government's "achievement" in boosting financial inclusion of minorities.
He allocated Rs 3,711 crore to the Ministry of Minority Affairs in his interim budget for 2014-15. The revised budget for the ministry in 2013-14 is Rs 3,111 crore against the intial budget estimate of Rs 3,511 crore.
"10 years ago, the minorities had 14,15,000 bank accounts in 121 districts of India where there is a concentration of minorities. At the end of March, 2013, they had 43,52,000 accounts and the volume of lending had soared from Rs 4,000 crore to Rs 66,500 crore," he said in his speech while presenting interim budget in Parliament.
Loans to minority communities in the whole country stood at Rs 2,11,451 crore at the end of December 2013, he said.
The Prime Minister's Office circulated the figures through its twitter account as it spoke about "development of minorites as part of inclusive growth" under the UPA regime.
The socio-economic development of minorities, especially Muslims, have been a major item on UPA's agenda as it launched a slew of schemes to reach out to the community whose support is key to Congress' fortunes in Lok Sabha elections.
