Earmark 22.5 pc in budget for SCs/STs, says Paswan

A Sub-Committee— of the Committee of Ministers (CoM) — chaired by Ramvilas Paswan has recommended earmarking 22.5 per cent of the annual budget for Scheduled Castes...

A Sub-Committee— of the Committee of Ministers (CoM) — chaired by Ramvilas Paswan has recommended earmarking 22.5 per cent of the annual budget for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under the Special Component Plan.

Paswan is obviously in a race to get ahead of Social Justice Minister and fellow Dalit leader Meira Kumar. Calling for a revision of the SCs’ quotas according to their increased population, Kumar had hit the headlines last week.

The CoM, headed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, has 13 members and six sub-committees. The one headed by Paswan has Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Mahavir Prasad and K Chandrashekhar Rao as members.

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The committee suggested that 15 per cent of the budget should be for SCs and 7.5 per cent for STs. It also recommended that villages having 40 per cent Dalit population should be declared ‘Prime Minister’s Model Village’ and all facilities provided to them.

‘‘In the SC-dominated villages, lower primary schools should be set up and residential schools up to middle level be provided for every three to four panchayats,’’ said the committee.

Government sources said the ministers called for electrification of all SC villages in the next two years and and a house for each BPL Dalit family in three years.

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