Buta Singh Pulls up Karnataka for 'dismal' record in Scheduled Castes welfare
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
BANGALORE, APR 28: In a shot-in-the-arm for Karnataka’s beleaguered Congressmen, who have been campaigning against the B S Yeddyurappa-led BJP regime in Karnataka for non-utilisation of Central funds, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes has pulled up the state government for its ``dismal and depressing’’ performance in the amelioration of the sorry plight of Scheduled Castes in the State.
"A grave injustice is meted out to the Scheduled Caste people by the Government in recruitment, promotions, allocation of funds and implementation of various centrally sponsored schemes as well as Special Component Plan,’’ Commission chairman Buta Singh said in Bangalore on Wednesday.
During the 11th five-year plan, the state spent only Rs 6,004 crore as aginst the allocation of Rs 9,063.06 crore under the special component plan, which was a ``willful, deliberate and unpardonable lapse,” he said.
Buta Singh, who is heading a statutory national commission, told reporters after a detailed review of the implementation of various schemes meant for the welfare of SCs in the State that the state government’s failure to deny 1.2% reservation that should have been granted to them over and above the 15% fixed to make up for a total reservation quota of their 16.2% population out of the total was ``a gross injustice and violation of fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution.”
" We can not digest this," he said pointing out that the state government had
allocated 15 % of funds in the budget and reserved 15 % of seats in educational institutions. The SC population in the State is 85,53,920 in a total population of 5.28 crore, he said.
The commission was constituted under Article 338 of the Constitution to oversee the various safeguards provided to SCs under the statute.
Buta Singh also castigated the state government for not maintaining proper data on the percentage of SC employees in Class I, Class II and Class III categories. There was no data on release of matching grants by the State for implementation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes.
Serving a two-day deadline to the Government for providing details on various issues, he said the Government had not followed a roster system in the recruitment in government, public undertakings and autonomous bodies. A huge backlog of vacancies had not been filled over the years.
He was highly critical of the Government’s failure to take appropriate action against 4,200 candidates who obtained jobs producing fake caste certificates. ``This amounts to denial of the rightful benefits to deserving SCs and cannot be tolerated,’’ he declared. ``Most probably nothing will happen until these persons retire after reaping all benefits,” he said.
"Unless roster system is followed, we cannot correctly ascertain the number of vacant backlog posts,”the chairman said.
Only in Group D category, 24.4 % of SCs had been employed, he said even though there were nearly 3,000 backlog vacancies.
Buta Singh lambasted the government for its failure to appoint a chief liason officer at the State-level, which was mandatory, and nodal officers at the district levels for monitoring the implementation of welfare schemes and wanted the government to immediately set right the lapse.
"A high-level committee on Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities Act) headed Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa has not met for the last three years,” he said pointing out that this instance was enough to prove the Government’s neglect of the cause of SCs while paying lip-service at public platforms.
The high-level panel headed by the chief minister had last met when H D Kumaraswamy was the Chief Minister in 2006.
Buta Singh lamented that Karnataka ranked at the bottom of the table in the conviction rates for atrocities against SCs and STs.
As per the National Crime Bureau report for the year 2008, the percentage of conviction rates in the State was a meagre 2.8 against 17.5 in Bihar, 13.3 in Andhra Pradesh, 26.9 in Assam, 34.2 in Chhattisgarh, 3.5 in Gujarat, 10.6 in Haryana, 16 in Jharkhand, he said.
Referring to funds allocated in the Special Component Plan and Centrally Sponsored Schemes, Buta Singh said the State had failed to release its share in all schemes meant for the welfare of the SCs. The implementation of schemes has been dismal.
Even the funds released funds by the Centre had not been utilised, he said.
The Government has not taken steps for improving the quality of education of SC students. Nearly 65 % of students have not passed 10th standards and admission of students in post-graduation courses ``is negligible in 11 state run universities,” the chairman said.
The Commission Vice-Chairman N M Kamble and other members of the Commission, Social Welfare Minister D Sudhakar, Chief Secretary S V Ranganath and senior police officials were present at the review meeting.