In yet another “minority friendly” initiative, the UPA Government is charting out a major socio-economic development programme for Minority Concentrated Towns (MCTs) — were 25 per cent of their population consists of minorities — across the country.

The Ministry of Minority Affairs (MMA) had recently identified 338 MCTs which are lacking in basic amenities and are backward in specified socio-economic parameters: literacy rate, female literacy rate, work participation rate, female work participation rate and percentage of households with pucca walls, safe drinking water, electricity supply and water-closet latrines. The maximum number of MCTs are concentrated in UP (72), followed by Maharashtra, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

According to an MMA official, the “development deficits” identified in these MCTs would be addressed by formulating town-specific plans such as providing better infrastructure for schools, sanitation, pucca housing, drinking water and electricity supply. The Ministry is also in the process of devising beneficiary-oriented schemes for creating income-generating activities.

“The thrust of the programme would be to address the development deficits brought out by the baseline survey and to bring the socio-economic and basic amenities’ parameters of the MCTs on a par with the national average,” said the official.

The Government will also provide additional funds to existing schemes such as Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana (RSVY) and Backward Regions' Grant Fund (BRGF), and will direct implementing agencies to give priority to the MCTs. The quantum of financial assistance will be estimated on the basis of backwardness parameters and the size of the minority population, said the official.

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