Proposals worth over Rs 392 crore for 29 minority districts in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand have been approved by the Empowered Committee for multi-sectoral development programme in the Ministry of Minority Affairs.
Of the 29 district plans that were approved for the 12th Plan period, 16 were from Uttar Pradesh, nine from West Bengal and four from Jharkhand, according to an official release here.
The minority districts in U.P. that stand to gain are Pilibhit, Moradabad, Sambhal, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Balrampur, Barabanki, Bareilly, Bijnor, Budaun, Lucknow, Rampur, Shahjahanpur, Shrawasti, Siddharth Nagar, J.P. Nagar, Meerut, Ghaziabad and Hapur.
In West Bengal, the plans were approved for Birbhum, Burdwan, Murshidabad, Nadia, Uttar Dinajpur, South 24 Parganas, Cooch Behar, North 24 Parganas and Dakshin Dinajpur. In Jharkhand, the districts whose plans were cleared are Sahibganj, Simdega, Pakur and Khunti.
The two districts whose proposals were not approved are Bahraich from U.P. and Sirsa from Haryana.