Spending on SC/ST welfare fails to reach even halfway mark
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The Social Welfare Department, which receives the largest share in the budgetary allocation, has not seen expenditure of even 50% of the allocated sum in the first nine months of the financial year 2020-21. The expenditure on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes welfare, by various departments routed through Social Welfare, has been 47.5% so far.
Of the total allocation to the SC special programme of ₹17,863.16 crore, the expenditure by the end of December was ₹8,431.59 crore (about 47%). With respect to Tribal Sub Plan, ₹3,722.49 crore was spent of the total allocation of ₹8,267.30 crore (about 48%). Owing to COVID-19, the State had reduced the total allocation by about 7.5%, from ₹27,699.52 crore to ₹25,616.83 crore. Of the total allocation, the department has an allocation of ₹3,106 crore, down from the original allocation of ₹3,988 crore. The rest of the amount is distributed to 36 departments, which would in turn take up welfare works for SCs/STs. While the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj and Minor Irrigation Department have spent 68% and 70% respectively, the Social Welfare Department has been able to spend only 43.63%.