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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Less cash for Dalits, tribals -Basant Kumar Mohanty

Less cash for Dalits, tribals -Basant Kumar Mohanty

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published Published on Mar 2, 2015   modified Modified on Mar 2, 2015
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley has slashed the overall allocation for Dalits and tribals in his budget compared with last year's proposals in a trend critics fear could see the "last man" gradually becoming the "lost man".

The media, too, came in for criticism for giving the "impression" that the country had no SC/ST citizens.

Jaitley yesterday set aside Rs 30,851 crore for Scheduled Castes and Rs 19,980 crore for Scheduled Tribes out of a total plan allocation of Rs 4,65,277 crore for the coming 2015-16 financial year.

That works out to 6.6 per cent of the total outlay for SCs and 4.3 per cent for STs.

Last year's budget - presented after the BJP came to power in May - had set aside Rs 50,548 crore and Rs 32,287 crore for SCs and STs, which accounted for 8.8 per cent and 5.6 per cent, respectively, of the total outlay of Rs 5,75,000 crore.

The 2014 allocations were higher - in both outlay and percentage - compared with what the UPA government had set aside for SC/STs in 2013.

Of the total plan outlay of Rs 5,55,322 crore in 2013 - the last full budget by the UPA government - the allocation for SCs was Rs 41,561 crore (7.48 per cent) and that for STs, Rs 24,598 crore (4.43 per cent).

CPM politburo member K. Varadharajan said all governments speak about the "significance of Antodaya", referring to the government policy that the last man on the socio-economic ladder should get priority in welfare schemes.

"The SCs and STs are historically the last persons. The last man is the lost man in the budget and policy planning," Varadharajan said.

When the Planning Commission - now replaced by the Niti Aayog - was still active, it issued guidelines from time to time on how funds should be set aside for SCs and STs.

The guidelines suggested that outlays should earmark exclusive funds equivalent to the population proportion of SC/STs nationally and within the states under the SC Sub-Plan (SCSP) and the ST Sub-Plan (STSP).

According to the 2011 census, SCs accounted for 16.6 per cent of the country's population and STs, 8.6 per cent.

P.S. Krishnan, former secretary, welfare department, Government of India, said it was "deplorable" that the allocation for SC/STs had come down substantially. "Whatever is being allocated for SCs and STs is not being utilised," Krishnan added.

Money meant for exclusive schemes is shown to have been spent as part of other schemes like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan or the national highway project, reducing the SCSP and the STSP to arithmetical jugglery, he said. This year's Union budget has just one exclusive scheme - the MUDRA Bank scheme - that will give priority to SCs and STs in giving loans for setting up micro-enterprises.

"One scheme is a drop in the desert. The historical neglect and continuing discrimination against these people cannot be addressed by one scheme," Krishnan said.

Krishnan was also critical of the media. "The media coverage of the budget gives the impression that there are no SCs and STs in the country or they do not matter for the development of the nation," he said.

Balabhadra Majhi, a Lok Sabha MP from Odisha's Nabarangpur tribal constituency, said the government must bring in a law for exclusive allocation of funds and schemes according to the population proportion of SC/STs.


The Telegraph, 2 March, 2015, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150302/jsp/nation/story_6413.jsp#.VPQDLOFr9U8


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