Minority Affairs Ministry's long wait for a set up ends

New Delhi, Apr 29 (UNI) After a wait of about four months, the newly established Ministry of Minority Affairs, whose creation had witnessed some controversy regarding its raison d'etre, has now a set up in place.

The Ministry headed by veteran Congressman A R Antulay has so far been functioning from his residence at the Jantar Mantar Road.

It is now going to have its office at the Shastri Bhavan, according to official sources. A staff of about 35 people including a Secretary and joint Secretary has been appointed, acording to official sources.

The Ministry has been carved out of areas of work separated from the Ministries of Human Resource Development, Social Justice and Empowerment and Tribal Affairs.

One of the reasons for the delay in the creation of the organisational set up of the Ministry has been due to the resistence by the ministries to part with some of their responsibilities.

The department of Minorities Education, part of the Human Resource Development Ministry was given to Mr Antulay's newly Ministry, but had to be returned to the HRD Ministry after HRD Minister Arjun Singh refused to part with the department, the souces added.

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