Double allocation for welfare of minorities'

Bengaluru: Karnataka minority leaders reportedly demanded Chief Minister Siddaramaiah double the budgetary allocation for minority development this year from Rs 800 crore to Rs 1,900 crore.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a senior leader who attended the pre-budget consultation meeting with Mr Siddarmaiah here, said that the allocation for the Chief Minister’s ambitious programme, ‘Arivu’, for providing scholarships to minority students need to be  doubled as this is very encouraging for poor and meritorious students.

“The allocation for the Karnataka Minority Development Corporation needs to be at least doubled from the present Rs 200 crore to Rs 500 crore, which had been a long standing demand,” the source said.

Apart from this, the leaders wanted Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to launch a subsidised housing loan scheme for minorities in the state. “Although, it was launched in the previous budget itself, the quantum of allocation as well as the scope for identifying beneficiaries for housing schemes needs to extended in order to help more minority people. The biggest problem of minorities is that they largely reside in urban areas, where housing is a problem they face. Be it discrimination or otherwise, this population’s biggest worry has been  housing. Therefore, the state government need to address this problem in a sympathetic manner,” the source said.

According to the source, most of the minorities earn their livelihood from skill labour.

 “So, the state government will have to devise their  schemes in such a way to augment the subsidised funding for skill development and also provide subsidised commercial and housing loans to help the community,” the source argued.