Centre to trace minority funds

To turn a new leaf in perception politics vis-a-vis minorities and in a first in India, the Modi government is all ready to take stock of where its funds for minorities are actually going and how the targeted schemes of the minority affairs ministry are faring.

Minority Affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi would be chairing a 'samanvaya sammelan' or coordination meeting of minority affairs ministers from several Muslim populations intensive states on January 18 in Lucknow.

"We invited the minority affairs ministers from several states to take stock of how the schemes sponsored by the Centre as well as run by state governments are actually doing in the field. We want to review and appreciate the implementation of these schemes so as to know exactly how and how much the minorities have received the benefits," Naqvi said.

While the exercise is expected to add to the ongoing efforts of the Modi government to show itself in good light when it came to minorities, interestingly, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who has been looked upon as a Hindutva icon, will be inaugurating the meeting.

The minorities welfare and social welfare ministers of nine states and UTs would be participating, along with the respective secretaries of these states.

States participating in the meet are Punjab, UP, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana.

The Union ministry has long argued that whatever little money was spent on minority welfare under the UPA, the shoddy implementation and corruption at the grass-roots level had led to deliberate leaks owing to which the welfare schemes could never reach the targeted beneficiaries. It was with a view to plugging these leaks that the ministry has started 'Minority Panchayats' across the country to elicit the feedback of beneficiaries.