AIMMM president Mr. Feroze Ahmad Advocate said that Nirmala Sitharaman has disappointed the minority communities
New Delhi:
All India Muslim Majlis e Mushawarat, the only confederation of Muslim organizations and personalities of eminence, expressed concerns over the complete neglect of the minority communities in the general budget and said that even during the budget speech, no mention has been made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman about the development of minorities. AIMMM president Mr. Feroze Ahmad Advocate said that the National Democratic Alliance government presented its eleventh full budget in a row. During the general election and even before the budget presentation the unemployment, inequality and inflation were the major issues that have also impacted the results of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024. When we talk about budget allocation for marginalized communities such as Minorities, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Disable Persons, gender and children, the situation is not encouraging in this budget as well as Dr. Jawed Alam Khan, member of the organization and expert of the socio-economic affairs said “there is no serious efforts has been made to address the inflation and unemployment related challenges in this budget.
AIMMM emphasizes that despite the low development indicators of minorities, there was a drastic decline of 38 per cent in the previous year’s budget (a decrease of Rs 1,913 crore from 2022-23) for the MoMA. For the last few years, MoMA has not been able to utilise funds against the BE. The ministry spent Rs 3,998.57 crore out of the BE of Rs 5,029.10 crore and Rs 4,325.24 crore out of Rs 4,810.77 crore in 2020-21 and 2021-22, respectively. Actual expenditure of Rs 802.69 crore was incurred out of the Rs 5,020.50 crore outlay in 2022-23. When we talk about budget allocation for marginalized communities such as Minorities, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Disable Persons, gender and children, the situation is not very encouraging in this budget.
It is recommended that the total budget allocation for MoMA should be significantly increased, given the level of deprivation in the educational attainment of minorities. All the scholarship schemes should be made demand-driven, along with additional financial resources to enhance unit costs and revision in the eligibility criterion related parental income. The schemes which have been discontinued should be revived. Under the 15 Point Programme, resource allocation should be made in line with the diverse needs of minority communities across different sectors.