Opinion What’s yours is mine

The SCP for SCs was devised as a Plan instrument to secure for these individuals,families and habitations a reasonable share of the developmental progammes and outlays in each Plan sector,in addition to reservation and the outlays for post-matriculation scholarships,hostels etc that they were getting under the “welfare” sector,and to get new schemes rolling.

The Delhi government,as reparation,must now treat funds shown under SCP for Games’ works as not spent,and now spend that amount,in close consultation with SC stakeholders and activists,on works and schemes of direct and exclusive benefit to SC s. But this problem is not really confined to Delhi. The SCP for SCs and the Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) are treated with indifference in most states. It has been unearthed in Delhi only because of the media searchlight on the Commonwealth Games,and the indefatigable efforts of activists like Umesh Babu,who have been pursuing this matter with rare persistence in the last two years through RTI applications and writ petitions. But I can affirm that SCP and TSP funds have been misutilised,and reduced to a mechanical exercise of arithmetic,accounts and statistics (for example,a certain proportion of expenditure incurred on highways is shown as spent from the SCP on specious plea that SCs also use the highways.) Even the Central government has erred by showing a proportion of the capital outlay on IITs as spent on SCs and STs — which is not how the SCP and TSP are meant to be worked out. Such manipulations will show expenditure,but will succeed in closing the gap between SCs and STs and the advanced classes.

The Central government and the Planning Commission have an important role in creating a transparent system where the SCP and TSP are formulated in a meaningful manner,in keeping with their overarching objectives,and are implemented effectively — a role which they are yet to exercise seriously. One of them is to keep aside the population-equivalent proportion of the total Plan provision of the Centre and of each State and Union Territory as SCP for SCs and TSP for STs,before sector-wise allocations are made,and place the two corpuses at the disposal of an expert body,the National SC and ST Development Authority and State SC and ST Development Authorities.

These authorities should then make scheme-wise,sector-wise,programme-wise allocation of outlays based on developmental needs and priorities of SCs and STs,issue sanctions to the appropriate sectoral departments/agencies,and thereafter supervise,monitor and direct the implementation of the developmental plans. These will have to include irrigation for all lands of SCs and STs through community bore-wells etc.,distribution of government-owned cultivable waste,bhoodan,ceiling-surplus lands etc,to endow every landless rural family of SCs and STs with land and development of those lands,rehabilitation of safai karmacharis and bonded labourers through alternative employment and training,residential schools of high quality from class VI to XII to cover all SC and ST children and training for employment/ self-employment in various modern sectors,etc. When sanctions are issued for such schemes to the fullest extent of SCP and TSP,equivalent to their share in the population,this utilisation for irrelevant and non-empowering purposes will end. After the Delhi shocker,it is reported that the Planning Commission is taking steps to find out the extent of SC and ST fund diversion across states. Perhaps it could expand this exercise to create a transparent system.

The writer is former secretary,Government of India and chairman of the Peoples Commission against Atrocities on Dalits