Special aid for SCs lacks support: Report

The Centre's lack of support for the special assistance that is to be provided under the Scheduled Castes sub-plan has led a parliamentary panel to ask why the scheme is running anyway.

The Lok Sabha standing committee on Social Justice and Empowerment, headed by Ramesh Bias, noted that the Centre has dispersed no funds in some states.

"The Committee notes that there are some States like Bihar, Gujarat, Goa, Punjab and Maharashtra, where there was no allocation of funds in 2017-18. The Committee also notes that no funds had been released from the year 2014-15 to 2017-18 to Uttarakhand and Delhi. The Committee wonders that when states like Punjab, where there is the highest percentage of Scheduled Caste population, and Bihar, which has the fifth-largest absolute Scheduled Caste population in the country, are not getting assistance from the Centre to run this scheme, what is the purpose of running the scheme," the sixty-fourth report by the committee read. The panel also asked the Centre to ensure there is regular assessment of schemes by sending officials to various states, where the funds have been released and spent.

The panel, however, lauded the Centre for its pursuance of the states in the Northeast in disbursing these funds. "The Committee notes that the performance of the actual release of funds to the North Eastern States has improved during the last three years, but the number of beneficiaries in the states of Assam, Sikkim and Tripura have been decreased in 2016-17 and not reported in Manipur in 2016-17," the report added.