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Chandigarh, People’s Party of Punjab chief Manpreet Singh Badal today lashed out at the Akali Dal-BJP government in the state led by Parkash Singh Badal for ignoring the dalits who constitute 32 per cent of the population in the state.
“The National Commission for Scheduled Castes yesterday made shocking revelations about the performance of the Badal government on the dalits welfare front which is a story of not only of unspent funds but also that of diversion of these funds to other schemes. It is strange that only about two per cent of the funds earmarked for the scheduled caste population are being actually spent on their welfare as per the findings of the Commission”, he said.
Manpreet also referred to the indictment of the Badal government by Commission chairman Dr PL Punia who had stated that none of the recommendations made by the Commission to the Badal government in 2011 to increase the funding for the SC welfare schemes had been implemented. These recommendations included allocation of surplus land in the state to the dalits.
The PPP chief flayed the lop-sided development in Punjab going by the fact that the state lagged behind so far as the literacy rate of the SC male population which was 61.5 per cent as compared to national rate of 75.1 per cent. In case of women, the corresponding rates were 55.01 per cent and 70.68 per cent.
As per the official figures, of the Rs 6432 crore reserved under the Special Component Plan for SCs for 2014-15, the state had spent just Rs. 1655.98 crore (25.75 per cent) in first six months of this fiscal. Manpreet referred to the Commission’s observation that only 1-2 per cent of the funds meant for SC population were being spent on their welfare as there were major diversions of these funds.
He also took the government to task for not holding any meeting of the State Vigilance and Monitoring Committee set up under the Atrocities Act which was headed by the Chief Minister.
He said this was the section which should get the maximum attention so far as the welfare schemes were concerned but the Badal government was catering only to pressure groups.
