PM's Programme for minorities gets Cabinet approval

New Delhi, June 22 : The Union Cabinet today approved the Prime Minister's 15-Point Programme for welfare of minorities which touches areas ranging from communal riots and education to employment and housing.

The Programme, which was formulated in 1983, has been revised and recast, as promised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his last year's Independence Day speech.

He had said,'' The New 15-Point Programme will have definite goals which are to be achieved in a specific time frame.'' The cabinet also decided that 15 per cent of the funds provided under the scheme should be earmarked wherever possible for nationally declared minorities.

The Programme envisage action in the field of education, economic development and security of minorities.

Under the security, the issues to be addressed are prevention of communal riots, prosecution for communal offences and rehabilitation of victims of communal incident.

In education, the stress would be on improving access to school, modernisation of madrasas, providing resources for teaching of Urdu and improving educational infrastructure through Maulana Azad Education Foundation.

In the econmic area, the programme focusses on creation of employment, upgradation of skills through technical training, credit support and recruitment to state and central services and equitable share in rural housing and improvement of slums.

The 15-point programme has been recast to provide for earmarking of outlays in certain schemes so that the progress was monitorable.

UNI