TMMK reaction to Union Budget

Prof. M. H. Jawahirullah, President, Tamilnadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam has issued the following statement regarding the Union Budget laid in the table of Parliament today

Tamilnadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam welcomes the people friendly budget presented by Union Finance Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram today. TMMK whole heartedly welcomes the decision to waive farmer loan and to raise the Income Tax exemption limit. Similarly we welcome the decision to hike the excise duty on non filter cigarettes.
TMMK welcome the decision of the Finance Minister in doubling the allotment to Union Minority Affairs Ministry which would be 1000 crore in 2008-09. However when compared to the fund allotted for other weaker sections this amount is partly as the largest Minority community namely the Muslim community are the weakest community in India as reported by the Sachar Committee . Besides a transparent policy should be laid on how the fund allotted to the Minority Affairs Ministry is utilised.
The Finance Minister has allocated Rs.100 crore for post matric scholarship. TMMK feels this allocation is not sufficient taking into consideration the Sachar Committee report which has put the educational status of Muslim community as worse than Scheduled castes. Similarly TMMK feels that additional funds should have been allotted to the National Minority Development Corporation.
TMMK welcomes the intention of the Finance Minister in implementing the recommendation of the Sachar Committee. In this respected he has said during his Budget speech that “a multi-sectoral development plan for each of the 90 minority concentration districts will be drawn up at a cost of Rs.3, 780 crore. The allocation in 2008-09 will be Rs.540 crore; a pre-matric scholarship scheme with an allocation of Rs.80 crore next year; a scheme for modernising Madrassa education for which a provision of Rs.45.45 crore has been made in 2008-09; 256 branches of public sector banks have been opened this year until December 2007 in districts with substantial minority population. 288 more will be opened by March 2008 and many more in 2008-09; a continuing the exercise started this year, more candidates belonging to the minority communities will be recruited to the Central Para-Military Forces. I also propose to provide Rs.60 crore to enhance the corpus fund of the Maulana Azad Education Foundation.”
With regard these proposals, TMMK feel a lack of seriousness as the funds allotted are highly inadequate to make a desired impact. Besides the inadequacy of funds, in the 90 minority districts identified to implement ‘multi sectoral development’, only about half of the districts have Muslims. Only about 30 per cent of Muslims are covered in this approach, and the question is what happens to the remaining 70 per cent, spread all over India? When the Finance Minister speaks about ‘substantial Muslim Population concentrations’ TMMK would like to point out that this concept has not been given a clear definition. TMMK urges the Union Government that “substantial Muslim population concentrations” must be defined at the level of the taluks and blocks and not at the level of the district, confined to only 90 districts. Given the advantage of decentralisation through the panchayats, the taluk-block level focus will help reach out to the maximum number from the deprived communities.
TMMK welcome the decision that more candidates will be recruited to the Central Para Military Forces. However TMMK is disappointed that the Finance Minister in the course of his speech has not mentioned anything about the Report of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities headed by Mr. Justice Ranganath Mishra.
Not only Muslims but several Multi National Banks have been demanding the Union Government to permit the operation of Interest Free Banks which have been a great success in various parts of the world. We are disappointed that the Finance Minister has not made any announcement in this regard.