Ranchi, Sept. 28: Five ?minority? schools in the state, each one of them over a century old, has been sanctioned a sum of Rs 20 lakh each to upgrade their libraries and laboratories.

At its meeting here today, the Jharkhand State Minorities Commission directed the HRD department to release the funds expeditiously and ensure that the upgradation is completed within two months.

The schools are Lionel Edward Bengali Boys? High School (established in 1879), Yadunath Girls? High School (1873), Annada High School (1878), St. Columbus Collegiate School (1895) and Ram Gopal Sen Primary Middle School (1890).

Commission chairman Nirmal Chatterji said, ?Identification of these schools was done in July, when we decided to give these institutions Rs 20 lakh each, but the welfare department had been sitting over the files.?

The commission also decided to upgrade the State Oriya Middle School to a high school, informed vice-chairman, Vishwanath Rath besides according minority institution status to the Jamtara based Vidyasagar Girls School (Karmatand), where noted social reformer and educationist Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar had spent the last years of his life, the status of a minority institution.

As many as 74 Kasturba Gandhi girls? residential schools are to be opened in the state, the commission noted, but only two so far have been inaugurated in August.

The commission reviewed the census status of the minorities in Jharkhand and noted that Muslims accounted for 13.85 per cent of the population while Christians constituted 4.06 per cent.

There were 83,358 Sikhs (0.31 per cent) and 5,940 Buddhists (0.02 per cent). The commission took stock of the availability of text books in Bengali, Oriya and Urdu-medium schools.

The commission was informed that while Bengali and Oriya books had been printed and distributed, Urdu books were yet to be printed.

HRD officials said the copyright had finally been obtained from NCERT and Urdu books would soon be available.