Days after it celebrated the birth anniversary of Apna Dal founder and veteran Other Backward Classes (OBC) leader Sone Lal Patel, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) on Monday directed all party legislators to spend 35 per cent of their MLA local area development fund (MLALAD) for the welfare of Scheduled Caste (SCs). Party leaders said the move is a part of the party’s outreach plan for Dalits ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Party president Jayant Chaudhary wrote to RLD’s Legislature Party leader Rajpal Balyan and asked him to ensure that all RLD MLAs follow the directive. “All RLD workers have unwavering faith in social justice and we believe that major social reforms and positive changes are not possible until the benefits of more and more government schemes reach the weaker and deprived sections,” Chaudhary wrote in his letter on Monday. “For this purpose, our party MLAs would spend more than 35 per cent of their local area development fund on the welfare of Scheduled Castes (SCs) in their respective constituencies,” he said. Chaudhary also instructed his party’s MLAs to raise the issues of SCs and backward classes in the Assembly, keep a watch on incidents where they are being harassed and work to get them justice.
