Congress chief P L Punia, the previous chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), has accused the Centre of diverting funds from the Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) underneath the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), pointing to Bihar throughout three fiscals for example of the identical.
Punia was referring to the disbursal of Rs 2421.94 crore from the monetary years 2018-2019, 20-19-20 and 2020-2021 – a interval wherein solely 78 homes for SC beneficiaries and 54 homes for ST beneficiaries have been constructed, whereas the remainder of the funds have been diverted to homes for “others” and minorities.
As per the PMAY portal underneath the Union Rural Development Ministry, the development of no home had been sanctioned in Bihar in 2018-19, whereas the Centre disbursing Rs 1,354.80 crore for the monetary yr underneath the SCSP technique.
In 2019-20, a complete of 39 out of 61 homes sanctioned for SC beneficiaries have been constructed. In this fiscal, the Centre disbursed Rs 749.40 crore underneath the SCSP scheme, whereas the development of 12,85,854 homes underneath “others” and 1,89,785 homes for minorities have been sanctioned.
In 2020-21, 39 out of 61 homes sanctioned for SC beneficiaries have been constructed, whereas Rs 39.59 crore was disbursed. During this fiscal, the development of two,25,696 homes have been sanctioned for “others”, whereas the corresponding quantity for minorities was 29,653 homes.
For these three monetary years, a cumulative sum of Rs 278.14 crore was disbursed, whereas 54 out of 150 sanctioned homes have been constructed for tribals underneath TSP.
A Rural Development Ministry letter issued on October 17, 2019 to pay and accounts officers clearly states: “It is reiterated that while allocating targets to districts, state should follow the formula prescribed by the ministry. It is clarified that earmarked targets for SC/ ST and minority cannot be diverted to general category. Only SC and ST targets can be interchanged if there are sufficient justifications.”
Speaking to The Indian Express, Punia stated: “As per Planning Commission guidelines, neither the state nor the Central government can change the plan head of SCSP and TSP. Only Parliament has powers to do so. We wonder how the Centre had been diluting such rules.”
Asked about the identical, Bihar Rural Development Department Principal Secretary Arvind Choudhary stated, “As we had constructed a good number of SC/ST houses since 2014, our priority list (60 per cent for SC/STs) had been exhausted.”
However, Punia famous that when the precedence checklist is exhausted, a state authorities has to tell the Centre and the disbursal underneath the SCSP and TSP funds needs to be stopped instantly. “But this fund cannot be diverted to the ‘others’ category under any condition,” he stated.
The Congress chief added, “It is very sad that the Centre has done away with concepts of SCSP and TSP, running since 1976 and 1980 respectively… The Centre has now been only putting up a list saying they have done work for SCs and STs… The change of fund head is a major issue. We are going to raise the matter in Parliament soon.”
Asked in regards to the “diversion” in SC/ST funds, as alleged by Punia, Choudhary stated: “It cannot be called diversion. We used it with the Cenre’s permission.”
According to Delhi-based RTI activist Rajeev Kumar, Ministry of Rural Development Deputy Director General (Rural Housing) Gaya Prasad has said that as a precept, the plan head of SC or ST fund can’t be modified. “Only Parliament can change it, that too after a cabinet note,” he stated.
When requested about Punia’s objections, Union Rural Development Secretary Nagendra Nath Sinha advised The Indian Express: “In Bihar’s case, its chief secretary had written to us about its priority list of SC/ ST beneficiaries getting exhausted.”
Asked in regards to the Planning Commission pointers and the ministry’s 2019 letter, Sinha stated, “These guidelines are for broad perspective. Funds are regulated from our end.”
Under the PMAY (Gramin) scheme, the identification of beneficiaries was primarily based on the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC 2011) information. A complete 27,48,163 houseless households, together with 2,85,709 eligible SC/ST households, have been recognized by the Bihar authorities, of which 26,78,748 homes have been sanctioned, with 2,75,880 beneficiary households belonging to the SC and ST communities.
Under the PMAY(G) scheme, the development of 17,73,055 homes has been accomplished, of which 2,23,443 homes are for SC/ST beneficiaries (81 per cent of the sanctioned homes for SC/ST households).
