[LST] A special component plan for SCs & STs in Andhra

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Sreelatha Menon | New Delhi - Apr 27 , 2013
Last Update at 21:48 IST
Tamarind water for the SC/ST
In the matter of undoing the wrongs done to dalits and adivasis in the
country, one state has set a precedent. Andhra Pradesh has passed the
country's first law to make the Special Component Plan (SCP) for the
Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) a legal entitlement.

The Centre and states at present set aside a portion of the Plan
funds, reflecting the population of SC/STs, for their welfare.
However, departments and ministries have been seen spending these
funds either on general schemes or letting funds lapse. In Odisha, the
funds were spent on upkeep of jails, in Gujarat, on the Sadbhavana
fast and in Delhi, the funds were spent on the rubberised roads, says
a dalit rights activist, Paul Divakar, who is now part of a national
coalition of activists for the SCP legislation.

The Andhra law, which was a result of much lobbying by these
activists, is expected to be a trend-setter for many reasons, the
first being political expedience, given the fact that the Lok Sabha
and several state polls are approaching. The governments of Karnataka,
Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where elections are close by, have
announced committees to draft a Bill on the lines of the Andhra
Pradesh Scheduled Castes Sub Plan and Tribal Sub Plan (Planning,
Allocation and Utilisation of Financial Resources) Act, 2013.

The Centre is also awaiting a committee report for the purpose of
legislation. In Bihar and Maharashtra, the governments have made
announcements on these lines, though elections are far away. The main
significance of the Andhra law is that it provides for spending SCP
funds for SC/STs for "schemes exclusively benefiting SC/ST
households".

So far, government departments were free to spend the fund meant for
SC/STs on general schemes such as building roads. Now, the departments
would have to innovate and design schemes that would benefit the
SC/STs specifically. The law also ensures speedy disbursement of funds
meant for SC/STs.

The prevailing practice, according to members of the national
coalition, is that the finance secretary would give his approval for
the release of funds, and this often leads to priority being given to
other schemes. Srinivasa Reddy, a member of the coalition on
legislation, cites the example of a scheme for residential schools for
dalits and adivasis in Andhra Pradesh, where the schools were made to
wait infinitely for the paltry funds at the rate of Rs 12 per child
per meal. The meal comprised rice, dal and tamarind water. This small
amount for a meal of tamarind water and rice would take months to get
the approval of the finance secretary, says Reddy.

The new law would at least free SC/ST welfare schemes from being at
the mercy of bureaucrats and their political bosses, and would lead to
creation of new imaginative schemes for their welfare, Reddy adds.

According to the law, funds, after being approved by the legislature,
will be released by a secretary in the finance department to various
departments. The allocations themselves would depend on the schemes
that various departments make and send to a nodal agency set up for
implementation of the SCP scheme. The state is currently drafting
rules and forming a nodal agency under the Act.

The first law of this kind comes after decades of blatant diversion of
funds meant for SC/STs by the Centre and states. Last year, the
Planning Commission was accused of trying to legitimise diversion of
SC/ST funds. It sought to reduce the gap in spending by reducing the
number of ministries bound to set aside 22 per cent of funds for
SC/STs by half. It also sought to calculate the requirement of funds
for SC/STs by using the national consumption data for SC/STs, thus
reducing the gap in spending. Later, it deleted this chapter from the
12th Plan.

The Central legislation, expected in one of the sessions of Parliament
preceding elections, may finally see funds meant for the marginalised
being spent on their welfare, 30 years after the making of SCP.






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