Rs 21,000 crore meant for Dalits was diverted
Monday, 14 March 2011
Hyderabad, March 14: In the last 19 years, money to the tune of Ra
21,000 crore from the SC sub plan funds for Andhra Pradesh, which
should have been used for the development of the scheduled caste
community, has never reached them, revealed K R Venugopal, retired
bureaucrat and former secretary to Prime Minister of India.
Expressing concern at the diversion of funds earmarked for Scheduled
Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), he said, "A part of the funds
has been spent on outer ring roads, beautification of Hussainsagar,
flyovers and other projects." Venugopal was speaking at a media
workshop organised by the Centre for Dalit Studies (CDS) in the city
on Sunday on the implementation of Scheduled Castes Sub Plan. The
guests at the workshop spoke at length on issues related to budget
allocation for SCs and STs and its impact on their welfare.
Venugopal expressed concern over the growing disparity between the
underdeveloped sections and the developed sections as a result of the
inefficient usage of the funds allocated to them by the state and the
central governments.
"A specific law should be introduced for the transparent usage of
these funds as injustice is being done to the lower caste population
for the last 50 years," he said adding, "Some of the problems faced by
dalits include high infant mortality rate, low literacy rates, high
school-drop out rate, maternity deaths and poverty." Sharing the
details of his recent meeting with the chief minister, Venugopal put
forward a few demands which would help in the betterment of these
sections.
"I had submitted a representation to the chief minister on behalf of
the CDS in which we demanded that Rs 4,000 crores be spent every year
for the next five years to make up for the unspent Rs 21,000 crore of
the fund. We appealed to the CM to pass a resolution and implement it
immediately," he said.
According to him, there is a need for the government to allocate a
part of the fund to organisations working on dalit issues. "Funds
should be provided to organisations like CDS in order to do research
and conduct awareness programmes," he said.
K Srinivas Reddy, senior journalist and secretarygeneral, IJU felt
that the policies and benefits meant for the socially deprived
sections were only on paper.
"Most of the government schools in villages consist of only SC, ST and
BC students.
The teaching facilties is also poor. The conditions of welfare hostel
are even more pathetic," he said, adding that sometimes hostel
students have to go hungry as a result of contractors not supplying
food on time.
M Lakshmaiah, senior journalist, pointed out the discrimination
existing in the villages. "In most of the villages, good water supply
ends near Dalitwada. These areas do not have proper roads or
electricity.
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