Grants must be spent only on SC/STs before August: Bommai

BENGALURU: The Karnataka government’s ambitious programmes should be implemented before August, and grants made for the welfare of SC, ST communities should be spent only on these communities, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai instructed officials at the SC, ST State Development Council meeting.

He asked officials to ensure that the Rs 1600-cr deposit in bank accounts of various Boards and Corporations under the Social Welfare department is spent within the next three months on Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) for Scheduled Castes and Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) for Scheduled Tribes schemes, excluding the Ganga Kalyana scheme. If not, the funds would be reallocated to  programmes announced this year, Bommai said.

The SC, ST Development Council meeting chaired by the Chief Minister approved the SCSP/TSP action plan for the year 2022-23 on Friday. Welfare programmes worth over Rs 28,000 crore were cleared. In fact, budgetary allocation had already been done and the Council’s approval to distribute funds was only a formality.

Addressing the meeting, Bommai said stringent measures should be taken to start  implementation of SCSP and TSP programmes in Education, Health, Nutrition and Women’s Welfare before August 15. 
He told reporters that the meeting took stock of the utilisation of allocations last year and funds remaining unspent. Some programmes were cleared with some modifications and most were approved without any changes.

The amount reserved for pensions in the Revenue department was raised to Rs 3,748cr from Rs 2,900cr. A  sum of Rs 20cr was allocated for development of places visited by Dr BR Ambedkar in the state. It was decided to issue free bus passes for SC, ST community students, Bommai said.