As per the announcement of the Finance Minister the government wishes to allocate total of Rs.119.45 crores for the educational & economic empowerment of the Muslim community in the current financial year (Rs. 100 crores for Maulana Azad Educational Foundation, Rs. 16.45 crores for National Minorities & Development Finance Corporaton and Rs. 3 crores for National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language). The finance Minister has also announced intention for providing merit-cum-mean based scholarship for the students for pursuing the higher studies but the announcement is silent about the total allocation for the scheme as the government has yet to finalise the scheme. 

If we closely scrutinize the total announced allocation in the Budget, it would come to Rs. 8.64 per member of the Muslim community, which is 13.44 percent of the total population. I sincerely feel that the proposed allocation is meager in terms and the government should enhance the allocation. 

It is to be pointed out that even as per the Xth Five Year Plan, the National Minorities Development & Finance Corporation (NMD&FC) has to get Rs 64 crore this year as the current financial is the last year of the plan and a meager allocation of Rs. 16.45 crores would mean