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Demand for minority status for two districts

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan State Minorities Commission on Wednesday called upon the Centre to include Jaisalmer and Sriganganagar districts of the State in the list of minority-dominated identified districts and release special package for their development in view of a significant population of Muslims and Sikhs, respectively, living in the two districts.

The Commission’s Chairperson, Jasbir Singh, in a letter addressed to Union Minority Affairs Minister A.R. Antulay registered his protest against the exclusion of the two districts from the list comprising 90 districts situated all over the country and pointed out that minorities in Jaisalmer and Sriganganagar were backward on both social and economic indices. “The yardstick for inclusion of a district in the list of identified districts is 25 per cent population of minority communities and their socio-economic backwardness. There is no justification for leaving out the two districts in Rajasthan as they meet the criterion,” he said.

Mr. Singh pointed out that the State Government had also observed recently that the Centre had discriminated against Jaisalmer and Sriganganagar. He said the Union Ministry’s decision would deprive the two districts of the special package of Rs. 50 crores each.

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