Plan panel pulls up Bengal on SC,ST welfare

Around 23 per cent of the state’s population is Scheduled Castes while 5.5 per cent are STs. “The state government has spent 45 per cent of funds in SC Sub Plan and 50 per cent of funds in the Tribal Sub Plan in the first two-and-a-half years of the Plan period,” said B P Gopalika,the secretary of Backward Class Welfare Department of the state.

Some state officials claimed funds could not be spent in areas facing a law and order problem. “We have not been able to spend money in areas like Lalgarh. The state government has a proposal of spending Rs 1 crore for tube wells in Lalgarh and about Rs 10 crore for housing of the Lodha community,tribals who are mostly inhabitants of Midnapore,” said a joint secretary of the department.

“The Planning Commission has been issuing guidelines from time to time and the general feeling is that the results are not satisfactory,” said Jadhav,who chaired the meeting.

Lashing out at the state government when some secretaries said they do not have proper data on SCs and STs since they had joined the concerned departments only recently,Jadhav said,“I will write to the principal secretaries of all the states and ask why junior officers or those who have joined recently do not have information and have been sent for the deliberations.”