As the funds allocated for the welfare of the Scheduled Castes by 37 Ministries, departments and Union Territories remain under-utilised, the Social Justice Ministry on Thursday started a Ministry-wise review of the Development Action Plan for SC (DAPSC), which it has proposed to replace with a new fund spread over eight sectors.
Under the DAPSC, all Ministries are required to allocate funds for the SCs in various schemes. In 2019-2010, against an allocation of ₹81,340.74 crore, 61.04% or ₹49,653.87 crore had been released as on Wednesday, the scheme’s website showed on Thursday. For 2018-2019, the release of funds with regard to allocation was 88.13%.
Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry Secretary R. Subrahmanyam said the Ministry would review the utilisation of funds for 2019-2020 as well as plans for utilisation for 2020-2021 along with the Ministries and the departments concerned, starting with agriculture, fisheries, animal husbandry and agriculture research. These reviews will go till March 12.
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The Ministry has also proposed replacing the DAPSC with a fund administered by the Finance Ministry, along the lines of the Nirbhaya Fund, divided into eight sectors, including education, health, agriculture and urban infrastructure instead of 37 Ministries.
The proposed fund was likely be discussed at the NITI Aayog on March 4, he said, adding that the use of the fund would have to lead to direct, quantifiable and measurable impact.
The Secretary said the aim was to improve the utilisation of funds with the potential of bettering the lives of people. For example, though the Department of Telecommunications had allocated ₹1,823 crore for the DAPSC, there was the question of how it could provide direct benefit to the SCs.
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