Leaders of political parties and members of the civil society urged the government on Tuesday to give teeth to the proposed legislation for implementation of the SC/ST sub-plan component of the budget at a roundtable organised here on Wednesday.
Former Secretary to the Prime Minister K.R. Venugopal wanted the Cabinet sub-committee, now looking into the matter, to focus on building infrastructure that would empower the poorest of the poor SCs and STs and promote entrepreneurship among them.
Noting that the State would be the first in the country to pass such a law, former Chief Secretary K. Madhava Rao said that they were working towards getting a law passed at the national level too on the subject. He suggested appointment of a nodal agency for implementation of the sub-plan. He wanted the law to enable carrying forward of unused funds and ensure that they could not be diverted to other subjects.
Focus on schools, hostels
Suggesting that the focus of expenditure be on schools and hostels, editor of Vishalandhra K. Srinivas Reddy wanted the law to hold the bureaucrats accountable. The programmes taken up should address the local requirements, BJP president G. Kishan Reddy said and promised to support the movement to make it a national law. CPI MLC Chandrasekhar suggested that lessons be learnt from the failure of the implementation of SC/ ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and steps taken to make this law work.
The Ministers and officials should be held responsible for the implementation of the law, former Minister of the TDP Kadiam Srihari said. There was a need to look at the implementation at State-level, district-level and the mandal-level, State secretary of the CPI (M) B.V. Raghavulu said.
The law must allocate budgetary funds at least in proportion to their population. It should be over and above the normal allocation for accelerated development of the SCs and STs, former bureaucrat Danam said.
BJP leaders Bandaru Dattatreya and K. Lakshman, TRS politburo member A. Chandrasekhar, YSR Congress leader Suryaprakash, representative of New Democracy Jhansi, editor of Namaste Telangana Allam Narayana, editor of Prajashakti Vinay Kumar, Mallepalli Lakshmaiah, Y.B. Satyanarayana and Anjaneyulu of the Centre for Dalit Studies and others participated.
