Lok Sabha Question No. 2676 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-03-16
Subject: Welfare of Minorities
Ministry: MINORITY AFFAIRS
Asked by: S. Gnanathiraviam

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF MINORITY AFFAIRS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2676 ANSWERED ON 16.03.2023

## WELFARE OF MINORITIES

## 2676 . SHRI GNANATHIRAVIAM S.:

Will the Minister of MINORITY AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether it is a fact that the funds released by the Union Government to the States under various schemes are not being fully utilized for welfare of the minorities;
- (b) if so, the details thereof along with the reasons therefor; and
- (c) the response of the Government thereto?

## A N S W E R

## THE MINISTER OF MINORITY AFFAIRS (SHRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)

(a) to (c) The Government implements various schemes for the welfare and upliftment of every strata, including minorities, specially the economically weaker and lesser privileged sections of the society, through various schemes of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship,  Ministry  of  Textiles,  Ministry  of  Culture,  Ministry  of  Women  and  Child Development and Ministry of Rural Development.

Ministry  of  Minority  Affairs  specifically  implements  various  schemes  across  the  country  for socio-economic  and  educational  empowerment  of  the  six  (6)  centrally  notified  minority communities.  The  benefits  of  the  welfare  schemes  meant  for  the  minority  communities  are being availed of by the eligible beneficiaries.

State-wise allocation of funds is not made under the schemes of Ministry of Minority Affairs. However,  under  the  Pradhan  Mantri  Jan  Vikas  Karyakram  (PMJVK),  which  is  a  Centrally Sponsored  Scheme  for  development  of  community  infrastructure  projects  in  identified  area, funds  are  released  to  the  State  Governments  for  implementation  of  the  scheme.  In  order  to ensure  that  funds  are  optimally  utilised  by  the  States,  as  per  the  revised  procedure  of Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, now the release of funds under PMJVK are not  tied  to  the  individual  projects.  The  States  have  been  given  flexibility  to  use  the  funds released  under  PMJVK.  The  amount  available  in  the  bank  account  of  State  Nodal  Agency (SNA) of PMJVK forms a common pool, which can be utilised by the States to complete the ongoing projects. Also, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK) has been revised from financial  year  2022-23  for  implementation  in  all  districts  of  the  country.  A  mobile  app PMJVK Bhuvan has been developed for Geo-tagging of all the assets created under PMJVK and  capturing  the  project  specific  attributes  including  photographs  of  different  stages  of construction/completion of projects for better implementation/ monitoring of the projects under PMJVK.

In order to ensure that the benefits of the schemes implemented for minorities actually reach the intended  beneficiaries,  the  scholarship  amount/  stipend/  financial  assistance  under  various schemes of this Ministry including skilling is released directly into the account of beneficiaries through  Direct  Benefit  Transfer  (DBT)  mode.  Further,  the  Scholarship  schemes  are  being implemented through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) which has features of sanity check, avoiding de-duplication, thereby resulting in elimination of middlemen, ghost beneficiaries etc.

*****