Govt committed to Minorities welfare: CM

Hyderabad, Feb 29: Asserting that the Congress Government was committed to implementing the Prime Minister's 15-point programme and the Sachar Committee report, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today also offered to take minority MLAs and MLCs to other states and adopt the good schemes for their welfare.

Intervening during Question hour, the Chief Minister directed his cabinet colleague and Minorities Welfare Minister Mohd Ali Shabeer to convene a meeting of legislators to take them into confidence on the implementation of the 15-point programme.

The government's sincerity need not be doubted, he told the agitated AIMIM members, who were dissatisfied with the implementation of the 15-point programme in Andhra Pradesh.

The Chief Minister recalled that soon after coming to power, the state government had introduced five per cent Reservation for Muslim minorities and reduced the quantum to four per cent after legal hurdles created by the BJP.

The allocation for providing scholarships to minorities was only Rs four crore when the Congress came to power and the allocation had been stepped up substantially to Rs 125 crore this year.

Stating that only 14 lakh of the 19 lakh houses sanctioned under the first phase of the INDIRAMMA programme had been completed for various reasons, he assured the House that all eligible members belonging to the minority community would be provided houses under the programme, based on the ''saturation of needs'' concept.

As most of the Muslims lived in urban areas and did not work in fields, they could not be provided jobs under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, he said, adding, ''this is not the fault of the government.''

UNI