Govt. Betrays Weaker Sections
UPA government at the Centre, through its slogan of aam aadmi recaptured the power again last year but its report card belies its claims, particularly w.r.t. its sincerity towards weaker sections of the society.
At the beginning of seventh five year plan it was decided that budgetary allocation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) & Scheduled Tribes (STs) would be in proportion to their respective population strength, i.e. with present statistics about 16% for SCs and about 8% for STs. However, the report card of UPA government since UPA I betrays this assertion. In 2004-05 total plan expenditure (excluding for states & UTs) was Rs 85,061 Cr of which Rs 3,611 Cr (4.3%) was earmarked for SCs and Rs. 2,382 (2.8%) for STs. In 2007-08, it was the higheast - 8.1% for SCs and 4.9% for STs. In 2009-10 it declined to 6.5% for SCs and 4.1% for STs. The budget is mainly spent through Special Component Plan for SCs and through Tribal Sub Plan for STs.
The slogan of women empowerment too has proved hollow. The allocation for women-centric schemes sharply declined to 3.2% in 2009-10 from 9.2% in 2004-05. Of the budget for the ministry of women and child development 97.2% goes to child development, mainly through Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), while just 2.4% is left for women oriented schemes.
The above details have been provided by the Centre for Budget & Governance Accountability and reported by ToI dtd Feb. 22 & 24.
The ministries in their annual reports just mention about the release of funds and nothing is said about follow up action or how the funds are utilised. Particularly for STs, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru had said in 1958, that the development should not be measured in terms of money spent but in terms of human character evolved. Can Mr. Manmohan Singh explain his government's budgets in the light of what Pt. Nehru said?
At the beginning of seventh five year plan it was decided that budgetary allocation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) & Scheduled Tribes (STs) would be in proportion to their respective population strength, i.e. with present statistics about 16% for SCs and about 8% for STs. However, the report card of UPA government since UPA I betrays this assertion. In 2004-05 total plan expenditure (excluding for states & UTs) was Rs 85,061 Cr of which Rs 3,611 Cr (4.3%) was earmarked for SCs and Rs. 2,382 (2.8%) for STs. In 2007-08, it was the higheast - 8.1% for SCs and 4.9% for STs. In 2009-10 it declined to 6.5% for SCs and 4.1% for STs. The budget is mainly spent through Special Component Plan for SCs and through Tribal Sub Plan for STs.
The slogan of women empowerment too has proved hollow. The allocation for women-centric schemes sharply declined to 3.2% in 2009-10 from 9.2% in 2004-05. Of the budget for the ministry of women and child development 97.2% goes to child development, mainly through Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), while just 2.4% is left for women oriented schemes.
The above details have been provided by the Centre for Budget & Governance Accountability and reported by ToI dtd Feb. 22 & 24.
The ministries in their annual reports just mention about the release of funds and nothing is said about follow up action or how the funds are utilised. Particularly for STs, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru had said in 1958, that the development should not be measured in terms of money spent but in terms of human character evolved. Can Mr. Manmohan Singh explain his government's budgets in the light of what Pt. Nehru said?
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