The Union Ministries of Social Justice and Empowerment and Tribal Affairs are working overtime to ready law that will ensure that resources allocated as part of the Scheduled Caste sub-plan and Scheduled Tribe sub-plan reach their intended beneficiaries. Top sources in both Ministries told The Hindu that they hope to introduce and pass the bill in the ongoing winter session of Parliament.
The bill will be moved by Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Kumari Selja, but it envisages two authorities, one that will be located in her Ministry — for SCs — and the other — for STs — in the Tribal Affairs Ministry headed by Kishore Chandra Deo to monitor how the various other ministries plan and spend the money set aside for SCs and STs.
If the shortcomings in the implementation of the SC and ST sub-plans have long been felt, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) had taken the initiative in UPA-II to take a fresh look at them to see whether a new system could be devised for the 12th Plan to ensure that the sub-plans “are implemented in letter and spirit”: it made its recommendations for a reform process of the SCSP/TSP to the Government of India in December 2011, and then suggested a framework a year later.
With inclusive growth the Congress’ mantra, the party now wants to push the bill to reform the implementation of the SC/ST sub-plans in the ongoing winter session to reach out to two communities that have been its traditional voters ahead of general elections in 2014.
The bill, sources in the government said, was circulated to various Ministries and the 24 States and three Union Territories that have a substantial SC/ST population. Thus far, in the States, only the Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh has enacted such law and Ms. Selja had urged Karnataka and Uttarakhand, also ruled by the Congress — to take steps in the same direction.
