Chavan said the Centre was currently funding four districts with a view to enhance the status of minority communities.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithiviraj Chavan Saturday demanded financial aid of Rs500 crore from Centre towards various developmental activities for minority communities in 10 districts of state.
Speaking on the occasion of inauguration of Haj House in Ganjipeth area of the state vice capital, Chavan said the Centre was currently funding four districts, including Buldana, Hingoli and Washim with a view to enhance the status of minority communities.
Chavan urged the Union Minister for Minorities, Law and Justice, Salman Khurshid, who was the guest of honour at the function, to sponsor the Centrally-monitored projects for minorities saying the Centre should extend the benefit of four districts to ten other districts where people from minority are in sizable number.
Union Minister for Social Justice Mukul Wasnik, Chairp erson of the Central Haj Committee, Mohsina Kidwai, and ministers from state Cabinet, including the Minister for Minority Development Arif Naseem Khan, besides MPs Vilas Muttemwar, Datta Meghe, Vijay Darda among others were present on the occasion.
Listing various developmental schemes meant for minority communities, Chavan said the Maharashtra government had earmarked Rs275 crore for recently created Minority Development Ministry and has plans to raise it to Rs350 crore in the next budget.
The chief minister said Maharashtra was the first state in the country to form a separate ministry for Minority Development.
"The state was emphasising on general and technical education for the minority community and extending benefits of scholarships and is opening second shifts in the state-run ITIs and government polytechnic colleges for them.
The government has initiated measures to check the school dropout rate and introduced a scheme where 4.5 lakh parents are given attendance bonus for their wards to be regular in schools and about five lakh students got free school uniform," Chavan added.
A pre-police recruitment training scheme has been introduced and about 6,700 boys and girls from minorities have been benefited by the scheme, he said.
Asking Baba Tajuddin trust officials to submit a detailed project, the chief minister asserted there would be no dearth of resources for developing the historic shrine of Tajuddin here and Rs50 crore have already been allocated for the purpose, while the remaining fund would be made available.
Salman Khurshid, Mukul Washnik and Mohsina Kidwai also spoke on the occasion and lauded the state and the local authorities for completing the construction Haj House well before this year's first flight for Haj scheduled for Oct 17.
Khan called on the Central Haj Committee to consider increasing the Haj quota in view of rising Muslim population.
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