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KCR denies SC fund diversion slur
Ruling out any possibility of funds belonging to the Scheduled Castes being diverted, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Friday said the State government spent 38.09 per cent on the SCs development. The State government gave details of expenditure on the SCs with over a lakh pages in the form of a pen drive to all members in the House.
Hyderabad: Ruling out any possibility of funds belonging to the Scheduled Castes being diverted, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Friday said the State government spent 38.09 per cent on the SCs development. The State government gave details of expenditure on the SCs with over a lakh pages in the form of a pen drive to all members in the House.
The Chief Minister intervened during a question on the expenditure on the Scheduled Castes development raised by Congress member J Geeta Reddy during the Question Hour. The Chief Minister said the allegation of diversion of funds was totally false and added that the government was sincere in its efforts for the development of the SCs, STs and BCs in the State.
The Chief Minister informed that the government allocated Rs 88.72 crore under the planned expenditure and spent Rs 33.46 crore. Similarly, for the STs, the government allocated Rs 8,165 crore and spent Rs 3,359.37 crore which was 41.13 per cent. He said the expenditure was more than the population of SCs in the State. He said there were 16 per cent (15.45 per cent as per Census) SCs in the State and the expenditure was 38.9 per cent.
He said there was no truth in the allegation that the funds were diverted. He also said blaming the entire official machinery was not correct on the part of the Opposition members. If there was negligence on the part of any official, then action would be taken against them, he added. “Are all officials ineligible? This is not a forum to make sweeping remarks,” said the Chief Minister referring to the allegations of the Congress members that funds were diverted because of the ineligibility of officials.
The Chief Minister said it was a known fact that the funds were diverted during the Congress regime but in the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government, nothing of that sort was happening. He said the Congress government spent Rs 2,651 crore for SCs but the TRS government spent Rs 6,713 crore within three years. Telangana was the only State which was providing an assistance of Rs 20 lakh to the SCs in the name of Ambedkar Overseas education, giving 100 per cent subsidies to Dalits, encouraging Dalit entrepreneurs in the name of TS-Pride, he added.
The Chief Minister suggested the Speaker to have debate on SCs and STs for two full days after November. “We want to be transparent. We are for the audit on the utilisation of funds for SCs and STs,” said the Chief Minister.
Earlier, talking on the subject, Congress member J Geeta Reddy said the top-level officials were doing good job but there were problems in the implementation at lower level. She said there were 54 lakh SCs in the 3.5 crore population of the State but the SCs never got their due share. The government promised to give three acres of land to Dalits and till now only 11,711 acres were given away and still there were many waiting for the land, she said. She alleged that funds were not used to the full extent and were getting lapse.
