Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

Implementation of 15-Point Programme for Minorities Reviewed

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, reviewed the status of implementation of the programme of affirmative action for the minorities, along with the progress made in the implementation of flagship programmes of the UPA Government On October 26, 2007. Apart from other decisions, Prime Minister had directed that the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Shri T.K.A.Nair, should hold a monthly review of the progress made in the implementation of the Prime Minister's new 15-Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities and the follow-up action, approved by government, in response to the recommendations of the Sachar Committee.

In pursuance of the directions given by the Prime Minister, Principal Secretary to PM reviewed the progress made in the implementation of the Prime Minister's New 15-Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities and the follow-up action on the recommendation of the Sachar Committee with the Secretaries of the concerned Ministries/Departments. The Secretaries to the Ministries/Departments of Home Affairs, Department of Personnel & Training, Rural Development, Human Resource Development, Financial Services, Planning Commission, Statistics & Programme Implementation, Labour & Employment, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Women & Child Development and Minority Affairs attended the review meetings.

In the Course of the review, it emerged that while progress in some areas relating to the schemes and programmes included in the Prime Minister's New 15-Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities was encouraging, in some other areas more efforts were required. Some encouraging results were also noted in the trend of the representation of minorities in government, especially, in the para-military forces.

As far as the follow-up of the recommendations of the Sachcar Committee was concerned, it was noted that a number of steps had been taken to implement the decisions. However, it was felt that the pace of implementation, especially, of decisions taken in the areas of education and extension of credit facilities needed to be stepped up. Principal Secretary to Prime Minister gave specific suggestions for speeding up the pace of implementation and the need for producing tangible results quickly. In particular, plans were finalized for development of a number of artisan clusters in Muslim dominated areas in an integrated and focused manner.