LAHORE, Jan 11: The federal government has taken up 95 development schemes involving an expenditure of Rs18.996 million for the benefit of minorities, Punjab Law and Minority Affairs Minister Dr Khalid Ranjha said here on Friday.

Mr Ranjha told a 10-member minorities delegation, which called on him, that the government was interested in involving people belonging to minority communities in nation-building activities. With a view to achieving this objective, the government had chalked out a programme for their progress in education, social and economic fields, he added.

He said the plan included 45 schemes costing Rs7.05 million in the Punjab, 31 schemes costing Rs6.618 million in Sindh and two schemes at an estimated cost of Rs0.5 million in Balochistan. A sum of Rs4.828 million was being spent on 15 projects initiated by the federal ministry of religious affairs, he said.

Mr Ranjha told the delegation that these schemes included repairs and renovation of worship places, construction of boundary walls around graveyards besides other welfare projects.

Meanwhile, the government, he said, had chalked out a comprehensive plan for the development of Nankana Sahib, a spiritual centre of the Sikh community. The plan included the carpeting of roads and construction of parks in the town, he said and added that the government had already spent Rs100 million on renovation of Sikh gurdwaras in the country.

Those present at the meeting included Minorities Advisory Council general secretary Jacqueline Tressler and members M. M. Shad and Dr Manohar Chand.