New Delhi, Feb. 19: Minorities across 90 backward districts, including 11 in Bengal, could soon have better access to schools, clinics, industrial training and employment opportunities, thanks to a Rs 2,750-crore scheme the Planning Commission has drafted.

Senior government officials said commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia had already cleared the scheme, to be funded completely by the Centre, and it was waiting for the go-ahead from individual ministries involved.

Under the 11th five-year plan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had ordered each ministry to give priority to the 90 districts, which have a sizeable minority population, while making allocations. Each ministry reserved 15 per cent of its funds for minority benefit.

The order followed the findings of the Sachar committee, which said minorities — Muslims in particular — were far behind other communities on key social indices.

Sources said Singh reviewed the government’s performance on minority schemes over the past month and is learnt to have pressed for their time-bound implementation.

The government has now decided that it needs a single comprehensive scheme across key social sectors, in addition to the Prime Minister’s earlier order, the sources said. “This project is significant because other ministry-driven schemes were not created with the aim of uplifting these districts,” an official said.

So while the ministry of women and child development might give priority to the 90 marked districts — 21 of them are in Uttar Pradesh — while providing for anganwadis, its schemes “did not” cater to specific needs of children from minority communities, the official explained.

Similarly, the HRD ministry has announced that minority districts will be given preference while building new schools or colleges. “But the ministry cannot expedite these schools and colleges under prevailing schemes,” the official said.

“Unlike all previous schemes, this will be a comprehensive project — across education, health, training and employment — to bring the most backward districts to a state comparable with the rest of the country,” he added.

Sources in the minority affairs ministry said most ministries concerned had responded favourably. The sources said minister A.R. Antulay was keen to announce the scheme in the coming session of Parliament.