Reiterating their earlier demand for a sub-plan for the minorities on the lines of the tribal sub-plan and the special component plan for the SCs, party politburo member Brinda Karat said without a dedicated sub-plan for minorities along with allocation of adequate resources, the recommendations of the Sachar Committee could not be implemented in a holistic manner.
The Rajya Sabha member also alleged that the commitment made by  prime minister Manmohan Singh to ensure 15 per cent of priority sector lending for minority communities were completely ignored by other arms of the Government itself.
“Between July and December 2006, as many as eight letters were written to the Finance Minister from the Prime Minister’s Office  and also the Minority Affairs Ministry on the need to set a target of 15 per cent of priority sector loans for minorities, but no instructions were issued by the Finance Ministry in this regard,” she told reporters here.
The follow-up action of the Minority Affairs Ministry “diluted” that commitment when it stated, “efforts will be made for stepping up priority sector lending to minorities from the present level to 15 per cent over a period of three years.”
Education neglected
The Government had also totally ignored the action plan prepared by the high-level committee under the HRD Minister-of-state M A A Fatmi on matters concerning education contained in the Sachar Committee recommendations, said Mohammad Salim, CPM MP and convenor of the party’s committee on minorities.
He also alleged that the Government had been dragging its feet in giving scholarships to students from minority communities, even after announcing it in the Budget.
Justice lag
“On the question of ensuring justice for the victims of communal riots, the record of the UPA Government is extremely disappointing. The Central Government did not accept the demand for a CBI inquiry into the major cases of killings during the Gujarat riots of 2002,”  Fatmi pointed out.