Dear Mr. Ranganathan,
Greetings from the SC/STBUDGET ADHIKAR ANDOLAN!
Ithas been great partnering with you on the Economic rights work and your supporthas gone a long way in strengthening this movement. We would like to thank youfor this. After several rounds of advocacy with the
central and stategovernments it is of paramount importance that we escalate our demands throughvarious forms of protests. Thus we have formed the SC/ST Budget AdhikarAndolan and would request you to be part of this andolan and bestakeholders of this initiative. We highly appreciate your dedication to thisissue. Your participation and ownership would definitely strengthen thismovement as it has done in the past.
“SauMein Pachees Haq Hamara” Campaign was initiated on the 24thof April 2012 by a Dharna at Jantar Mantar. There were parallel protests in 6other states and would culminate into a huge mass mobilization on 9thMay 2012 leading to “Chalo Parliament”. Let us march forward together inprotest to reclaim
what is rightfully ours!
Whatis the struggle about?
SCPand TSP were instituted in the year 1979-80, these are the two plans which forman integral part of the SC/STs and Tribal welfare fund, where the governmenthad decided that out of every 100 rupees spent by the government, Rs.16.20/-will be spent for Dalits and Rs.8.40/- spent for Adivasis every year; AND thatthe funds would be used for such schemes that will directly benefit SC/STindividuals/households or SC/ST bastis/tolas/localities. The government hasinstead, diverted a large share of this money for general schemes, hardlybenefitting the Dalits and the Adivasis. One of the recent examplesbeing diversion of
funds which happened during the common wealth games where alarge sum of money was spent on building the stadia and other suchinfrastructure, thus weakening the rights of the SC/ST’s. This act ongovernment’s part is a violation of the rights enshrined in the constitution.
Inthe current union budget 2012-13, a shortfall of Rs. 27526.78 cr. to SCP andRs. 11008.90 cr. to TSP in violation of the Special Component Plan (SCP) andTribal Sub Plan (TSP) guidelines has been noticed. Even in the amounts thathave been allocated, there is a ‘notional’ allocation (other than intended) ofRs. 6,229.96 cr. in SCP and Rs. 2267.05 cr. in TSP. In the XIth plan periodalone Rs 96,236.70 cr. was denied to Dalits and Rs 46,628.50 cr. to Adivasis,making a total of Rs.1,42,865.20 cr. for SCP/TSP of the
Union Government alone.If the aggregate of Union and state denials were to be aggregated, the amountdenied would be double of what it is now at the Union level.
Whatis our demand?
Following are the key demands to the Prime Minister:
- A Central Legislation should be designed for Special Component Plan and Tribal Sub Plan. This Central legislation should provide for:
- Clearly setting apart a proportion of the total Plan outlays of Centre and States that is equivalent to the population proportion of SCs/STs at national and state level, for their development.
- A well- designed, dedicated institutional set-up at the Central & State level, which shall allocate SCP/TSP funds to the Ministries/Departments, duly taking into consideration the developmental needs of SCs/STs. This will enable the Ministries/Departments to clearly show the schemes formulated for the development of SC/STs under a separate budget head.
- Encouraging participation of community, CSOs
and experts in planning as well as implementation and evaluations of schemes.
- The performance/outcome budget should be published every year, providing details about the beneficiaries and be made available to public access.
- We demand, that the shortfall including the notional amounts of Rs. Cr. 33,756.74 of SCP and Rs. Cr. 13,275.95 of TSP in the current Union budget 2012-13, be returned and reallocated to schemes with a clear objective of bridging socio-economic gap between SCs/STs and Non-SCs/STs with particular focus on health, education, housing, assignment/acquisition of land, employment, income generation, entrepreneurship and access to basic
amenities.
This campaign will be greatly strengthened by your participation . Wetherefore request you to:
- Send the following letter to the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, <pm...@pmo.nic.in> .
- Take part in the Chalo Parliament rally on the 9 May 2012 - starting at the Mandi House at
10.30am.
- Support the campaign through mobilising support and sensitising volunteers and community leaders for the realisation of the above demands.
Pleasemark all communications to be...@ncdhr.org.in
Thankingyou and looking forward to your participation!
N. Paul Divakar, RajenderGautam and Asha
Kowtal
OnBehalf of the SC/ST Budget Adhikar Andolan
8/1 South Patel nagar, 2nd Floor
New Delhi - 110 008
Mobile: +91 99100 46813
---------------------------
pm...@pmo.nic.in
To
Dr.
ManmohanSingh April 28, 2012
Hon. Prime Minister ofIndia,
Government
ofIndia
Subject: 1) We demand a CentralLegislation on Special Component Plan for SCs and Tribal Sub Plan for STs and2) the Union Government to return the amount Rs. Cr. 33,756.74 of SCP and Rs.Cr. 13,275.95 of TSP which is the denial in current year (2012-13) allocationincluding the notional schemes which do not contribute for the
development ofSCs and STs
DearSir,
Theimportance of the SCP and TSP has been underlined by you while addressing the51st Meeting of the National Development Council held on 27th June, 2005. Youhave stated that “in the mid-1970s, the Special Component Plan (SCP) and theTribal Sub-Plan (TSP) were initiated. Tribal Sub-Plans and Special ComponentPlans should be an integral part of Annual Plans as well as Five Year Plans,making provisions therein non-divertible and non- lapsable, with the clearobjective of bridging the gap in socio-economic development of the SCs and STswithin a period of 10 years”. Sir, we commend you for this great promise.
Weare writing to you with a deep anguish and concern about the utter neglect bythe Union Government in the implementation of the SCP and TSP. Inthe XIth plan period alone Rs.Cr. 96,236 has been denied to Scheduled Castesand Rs.Cr.46,628.50 denied to the Scheduled Tribes making a total ofRs.Cr.1,42,865.20 for SCP/TSP by the Union Government alone. Similar trends canalso be observed in the allocation of SCP and TSP by State governments.
Inthe current Union budget 2012-13, there is a shortfall of Rs. Cr. 27526.78 toSCP and Rs. Cr. 11008.90 to TSP in violation of the SCP and TSP guidelines.Even in the amounts that have been allocated there is a notional allocation
ofRs.Cr.6,229.96 in SCP and Rs.Cr. 2267.05 in TSP. Thus total denial for SCP Rs.Cr. 33,756.74 and Rs. Cr. 13,275.95 for TSP for 2012-13.
Wetherefore demand the following:
I. A Central Legislation should bedesigned for Special Component Plan and Tribal Sub Plan. This Centrallegislation should provide for:
a. Clearly setting apart a proportion ofthe total Plan outlays of Centre and States that is equivalent to thepopulation proportion of SCs/STs
at national and state level, for theirdevelopment.
b. A well- designed, dedicatedinstitutional set-up at the Central & State level, which shall allocateSCP/TSP funds to the Ministries/Departments, duly taking into consideration thedevelopmental needs of SCs/STs. This will enable the Ministries/Departments toclearly show the schemes formulated for the development of SC/STs under aseparate budget head.
c. Encouraging participation ofcommunity, CSOs and experts in planning as well as implementation andevaluations
of schemes.
d. The performance/outcome budget shouldbe published every year, providing details about the beneficiaries and be madeavailable to public access.
II. We demand, that the shortfallincluding the notional amounts of Rs. Cr. 33,756.74 of SCP and Rs. Cr.13,275.95 of TSP in the current Union budget 2012-13, be
returned andreallocated to schemes with a clear objective of bridging socio-economic gapbetween SCs/STs and Non-SCs/STs with particular focus on health, education,housing, assignment/acquisition of land, employment, income generation,entrepreneurship and access to basic amenities.
We are hopeful of a positive anddecisive action by the UPA II Government on these demands put forward.
Thanking You,
Sincerely,
