6 States Report Over 60% Utilisation of Funds Released under Multi-Sectoral Development Programme for the Welfare of Minorities

Jammu & Kashmir has utilised 74.39% of the amount released to it (till September 30, 2011) by the Ministry of Minority Affairs under Multi-sectoral Development Programme (MsDP) for the welfare of Minorities. The Ministry has released Rs. 5.99 crore to it out of which the State has been able to spend Rs. 4.46 crore. This is the highest percentage of expenditure reported by any State/UT under the Programme, which is being implemented in 90 Minority Concentration Districts (MCDs) of 20 States/UTs. Jammu & Kashmir has one MCD under MsDP.

Five other States have reported over 60% expenditure out of the amount released by the Ministry (till September 30, 2011):

1. Orissa: 69.50% (Amount released: Rs. 25.58 crore; utilised: Rs. 17.78 crore);

2. West Bengal: 67.85% (Amount released: Rs. 517.24 crore; utilised: Rs. 350.93 crore);

3. Haryana: 65.69% (Amount released: Rs. 30.47crore; utilised: Rs. 20.02crore);

4. Madhya Pradesh: 65.03% (Amount released: Rs. 13.98 crore; utilised: Rs. 9.09 crore); and

5. Jharkhand: 64.24% (Amount released: Rs. 101.13 crore; utilised: Rs. 64.96 crore).

Performance, with respect to spending the amount released by the Ministry, reported by other States/UTs under this Programme is as follows:

Manipur: 58.44%; Assam: 47.71%; Bihar: 43.76%; Uttar Pradesh: 42.21%; Arunachal Pradesh: 34.78%; Meghalaya: 30.62%; Maharashtra: 29.66%; Karnataka: 23.42%; Mizoram: 21.67%; Uttarakhand: 20.03%; Kerala: 7%; Andaman & Nicobar Islands: 0%; Sikkim: 0% and Delhi: 0%.

Thus the average percentage of the expenditure (till September 30, 2011) for the 20 States/UTs under this Programme is 49.97 %.

Multi-sectoral Development programme (MsDP) for the welfare of the Minorities, being implemented by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, is a Special Area Development Programme.It has been implemented from 2008-09 in 90 Minority Concentration Districts (MCDs) identified on the basis of substantial minority population and relative backwardness in terms of selected socio-economic and basic amenities parameters based on data of 2001 Census. The primary objective of the programme is to improve the backwardness parameters which resulted in the identification of the districts as backward and to bring them at par with the national averages.