Our Spl Correspondent
New Delhi: Three Northeastern states including Meghalaya have fared poorly in fund utilization under the Multi-sectoral Development Programme (MsDP) for the welfare of minorities launched by the Centre even as Jammu and Kashmir has achieved the highest utilization target.
Till the end of September, Meghalaya had utilised only 30.62 pc of funds released by the Centre, slightly above 21.67 pc of Mizoram. In the region, Manipur achieved highest fund utilization with 58.44 pc followed by Assam (47.71 pc) and Arunachal Pradesh (34.78 pc).
In the minority concentration districts of Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya and Mizoram, where a minority community is in majority, the schemes and programmes are focused on other minority communites.
The districts identified are ones with socio-economic parameters below the national average. West Garo Hills in Meghalaya was identified as one of the districts to be covered by the programme.
In fact, the KSU and other NGOs had demanded for extension of such schemes to the tribals who are minorities at the national level. According to them, the term minority should be decided on national basis and not on basis of states.
Five other states which have reported over 60 pc utilization out of the amount released by the Centre are Orissa, West Bengal, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. However, states like Sikkim and Delhi have not utilised the fund at all.
MsDP is being implemented by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, as a Special Area Development Programme from 2008-09 in 90 Minority Concentration Districts (MCDs) identified on the basis of substantial minority population and relative backwardness in terms of selected socio-economic and basic amenities parameters based on data of 2001 Census.
