GoM seeks SC/ST quota in govt funds

NEW DELHI: Advocates of the ‘funds quota’ have readied their report for the consideration of the Cabinet. A group of ministers on dalit affairs has recommended that around 25% of the Budget should be reserved for developing scheduled caste and scheduled tribe-dominated areas in the country.

The panel said these habitats should be declared ‘Prime minister’s model villages’ and should be provided with amenities like electricity, drinking water, education, roads and employment on a priority basis and in a time-bound manner.

The acceptance of the recommendation would mean declaring 71,406 villages with 40% or more SC/ST population as model villages. Uttar Pradesh, with 17,000 such villages, could be the largest beneficiary, followed by West Bengal and Bihar, which have 10,000 and 4,000 such villages, respectively.

The GoM meetings had witnessed heated debates over the economic viability of the proposal, with senior ministers arguing that the idea of a ‘funds quota’ was not feasible. But Ram Vilas Paswan, who heads the GoM, appears determined to place it on the Cabinet’s table.

The GoM wants the progress of rural sector schemes in the villages monitored directly by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). It has also favoured the constitution of Task Forces headed by District Magistrates to spearhead the implementation of the schemes.

To provide power and water supply to these villages, the GoM suggested that the ministries of power and non-conventional energy sources should make joint efforts within three years. The telecom department should ensure telephone connectivity to these villages by ‘09, it said. All such villages should have primary schools, while in every three panchayats there should be one residential middle school, a residential high school in every block and residential colleges in every such district, the GoM said.

It also recommended that metalled roads be built in every such village and if necessary, existing norms in this matter should be altered. Artisans and entrepreneurs residing in such villages should be extended interest-free loans up to Rs 20,000 under the ‘Swarna Jayanti Self-Employment Scheme’ and that the agro and rural industries ministry should generate self-employment under the REGP and PMRY schemes, it suggested.

The below-poverty line families in these villages should be provided houses under the Indira Avas Yojana within three years and they should be covered under health insurance for which the government should pay the premium, the GoM recommended.

Among other measures suggested by the GoM are providing subsidised toilets to BPL families, while APL families of SCs and STs be encouraged to construct toilets. It also suggested enlisting SIDBI’s support for carrying out skill development programmes for people in such villages.

The GoM recommended that landless SC families be given one acre of cultivable land and in case the government did not possess such land then the same should be bought and distributed among them. However, the land-seller should not be from the same community. Budgetary provisions should be made a must in sectoral schemes and mandatory targets should be fixed for these schemes.

The GoM also suggested that all ministries including the small-scale industry ministry should mandatorily purchase at least 30% of their total requirement from SC/ST businessmen.

The suggestion of construction of community halls in all such villages was also made.