State government sets up committees in minority dominated areas

As a big step towards bringing minorities into mainstream the BJP led government has set up 36 committees at district level and six at divisional level to check implementation of all government schemes in minority dominated areas.

These committees comprises of officers from departments such as education, heath, urban development, women and child development among others. The six divisional committees to be headed by divisional commissioner, who will be collecting feedback from district committees and submit a comprehensive report of implementation of schemes to the minority department for scrutiny every quarter. The order for setting up of the committees is expected to be out by Wednesday.

"We are hopeful that once these committees are set up, minority areas which are mostly neglected, will be able to benefit in a big way," says a senior government officer.

July this year, the Maharashtra government had asked the urban development department to identify five Muslim dominated areas in Mumbai and 10 such areas in rest of Maharashtra that lack basic urban facilities like roads, water, sewage etc. The department was asked to provide all facilities in these areas as part of government's newly launched scheme that aims at social integration of minority community by improving their financial, social and educational scenario.

Sources say, this would be an annual feature and every year different 15 minority dominated areas will be picked up for civic work. In another scheme the government has picked up several departments such as, urban development, education, higher and technical education, skill and development, women and child development and health— who have been assigned specific guidelines vis-à-vis minority community.

The minority department has also asked education department to introduce Urdu as an optional subject in at least 100 government schools. "There is demand for a lot of people wanting to learn Urdu language but it is not taught in most government schools. Under this scheme if 20 and more students are willing to learn the language the government will provide for a teacher," said a senior officer.