In next budget: SC-ST funds to be used for projects directly benefiting them
ENS Economic Bureau Posted online: Fri Nov 26 2010, 04:30 hrs
New Delhi : The spectre of Commonwealth Games would enter next year's
Budget with central ministries and state governments being told to
earmark and utilize special funds for scheduled castes and scheduled
tribes only on projects that directly benefit them.
"Central ministries and state governments would not only be required
to allocate Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan funds in
proportion to the SC and ST population, but would also access funds
from the identified heads and indicate the expenditure incurred under
those heads," says the guideline from the Planning Commission.
"In any case, the funds should be non-transferable to any other
scheme," it adds.
The new norms follow Delhi government's admission that it used Rs
678.91 crores from the SCSP to build games infrastructure. The state
had reasoned that since SC or ST population did not reside in any
particular locality, they had 'also benefited' from these
infrastructure projects.
But that reasoning did not cut ice with the Opposition which alleged
Delhi of 'misuse' and 'diversion' forcing Home Minister P Chidambaram
to admit to parliament last August that the diversion was wrong and
the Centre needed to "find some way to get this money back into SCSP".
A month later, the Commission ruled that since these schemes have not
been implemented effectively, it would be compulsory for all
governments to earmark funds in the Budget document as well as in the
Demand for Grants.
They have also been instructed to indicate the expenditure incurred
from these funds with the specification that the "ultimate outcome in
measurable terms also be correlated with the financial achievements
and physical coverage".
Previous budgets have only quantified the allocations for SC and ST
schemes under a broad head in the Expenditure Budget (Volume I).
The objective behind these special plan funds is to create productive
assets for SCs and STs to reduce poverty and unemployment among them.
These assets have to provide direct benefit to individuals or families
with priority to projects that provide basic minimum services like
primary education, health, drinking water, rural housing,
electrification or roads.
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