A high-level meeting to discuss ways and means to improve the lives of Muslims in the 12th Five Year plan today suggested more spending on education for the community. The meeting was attended by senior officials of the Planning Commission and Minority Affairs Ministry,besides politicians and social workers. A formal meeting between Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia,Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khursheed,Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha K Rehman Khan,and Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh,among others,will be held tomorrow to discuss aspirations and expectations of the community from the 12th Five Year plan. Some of the major points which emerged from today's discussion were: a sense of insecurity grips the Muslim community due to which they are bound to restrict themselves to ghettos; at least 70-75 per cent of the total allocated budget should be for education as it is the top most priority of the community. Those who attended today's meeting also felt that scholarship scheme for the minorities must be equivalent to those of SC/ST; welfare budget must be enhanced at least ten times of the 11th Plan; Minority Ministry should be the nodal ministry for minority related schemes; domain of the new 15 point programme should be increased to include urban welfare schemes. Another suggestion was to reduce the cut-off margin for Minority Concentrated Towns (MCT) to 15 per cent and take up the issue in the 12th Five Year Plan. It was also emphasised that the community should be involved at every level.
