Disclosing this here today at a public meeting, Union Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi said UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has asked for a list of minorities employed in education, telecom, health and power sectors in the states and at the Centre for initiating more development for them.

Observing that the Centre would soon introduce more development programmes for minorities, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, Dasmunshi said minority educational institutions would also be modernised.

Gandhi has also asked for drawing up profitable programmes for women self-help groups in the country, he said.

Dasmunshi's comments comes in the wake of BJP criticising Centre's move to undertake survey on Muslims in armed forces.

Earlier, speaking at Ratua, where he laid the foundation stone of Pakurtala-Durgapur 10 km road under the Prime Minister's Gram Sadak Yojana and inaugurated the extension of mobile phone services by BSNL, he alleged that the Left Front government during its past 29 year rule in West Bengal had failed to provide basic amenities to the people.

It was the UPA government's aim to provide mobile phone services to each block in the country by 2009 and a committee has been set up for the purpose, he said.

The Centre had now added telecommunication and power to its Bharat Nirman programme, he added.

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