And the Oscar goes to Minority Report

NEW DELHI: Intensifying efforts to woo the Muslim vote-bank ahead of the elections, and signalling that the upcoming Union Budget will have many imprints of the Sachar committee proposals, the UPA government on Monday announced its resolve to step up priority sector lending to minority communities from 9% to 15%.

The Centre has also decided to locate certain proportion of development projects in minority-concentrated area and to earmark, ���wherever possible���, 15% of targets and outlays under various schemes for minorities.

These were announced by the President in the course of her address to the joint-session of Parliament on the opening day of the budget session by maintaining that these policy initiatives were part of the prime minister���s 15-point programme, ���aimed at ensuring benefits of the development programmes flow equitably to the minorities���.

Ms Patil added, ���To improve the economic and educational status of the minorities, several programmes have been launched based on the recommendations of the Sachar Committee report.

The 11th Plan provides Rs 800 crore for merit-cum-means based scholarship for professional pr-ogramme for minorities students and Rs 3,780 crore for the development of 90 minority concentration districts���.

On the general health of the economy, the President showcased the fact that the Indian economy for the first time in the history has grown close to 9% per annum for four years in a row. ���This performance is all the more creditable against the background of high international oil prices and rising commodity prices, including for food.���

She further stated it would be the government���s endeavour to insulate Indian consumers from these global inflationary trends. ���World crude oil prices have almost doubled in the past two years to reach an all-time high of $100 a barrel, yet my government has managed to moderate the impact on the domestic consumer,��� she claimed.

Pushing the government���s ���all-inclusive growth��� theme for the ���common man��� she said the government has taken several steps to mitigate the plight of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and workers in the unorganised sector. Terming the Tribal Act as an exercise in ���correcting historical deprivations��� of tribal and traditional forest dwellers, the President said the state governments had been asked to implement the provisions in it.

On the agriculture sector, Ms Patil said the government has ���reversed��� the decline in public investment in agriculture, and the target of doubling the agricultural credit in three years has been substantially exceeded.


She said the recommendations of the Radhakrishnan committee on agricultural indebtedness were under the consideration of the government. There was, however, no mention of the farmers��� suicides in many parts of the country, especially in Vidarbha, provoking a protest from the Shiv Sena MPs at the end of the address.

On the contentious policy issue of promoting special economic zones, she said, ���SEZs have already provided direct employment to about 100,000 persons, with indirect employment estimated at twice as much���.

SEZs, she added, ���have attracted investment of over Rs 50,000 crore, and are expected to generate exports of Rs 67,000 crore this year���. Talking about the internal security situation, the President said the overall scenario remained ���under control��� and the government was ���fully alive��� to the threat of terrorism and Left-wing extremism.

Observing the Centre was pursuing a multi-pronged strategy to ensure peace, normalcy and development in Jammu and Kashmir, the President said the Prime Minister���s Reconstruction Plan was being implemented vigorously and a housing project for Kashmiri migrants was under implementation in the state.

���The government is working on a holistic approach aimed at confidence-building among all sections of society, easier travel across the line of control, better governance and closer attention to aspirations of the people of J&K,��� she said.

Turning to developmental activities in northeast, she said Greenfield Airports would be constructed in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. As soon as the President concluded her address, TRS members registered their protest over the Telangana issue.