Bengaluru: As Chief Minister Siddaramaiah braces up for his record-extending 16th Budget, he finds himself in the middle of a political tightrope walk – Are two of his pet projects from different eras coming in the way of each other? If not, how does he win the perception battle?
While the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan (SCSP/TSP) Act, 2013, which allocated 24.1 per cent of the total budgetary allocation for expenditure for the welfare of SC/STs, was a prominent legislation during Siddaramaiah’s first term as chief minister, the policies in his second-term have mainly revolved around the five flagship guarantees.
The date defence
With the Opposition BJP-JD(S) combine intensifying its campaign against the “misappropriation” of funds under the SCSP/TSP Act for guarantees, the government is expecting to retaliate through caste-specific data for four guarantees (Gruha Lakshmi, Gruha Jyothi, Anna Bhagya and Yuva Nidhi) to ascertain the number of SC/ST beneficiaries under each scheme.
For the Shakti scheme, the government is yet to devise a method to find out caste-wise data of beneficiaries.
Final numbers
According to sources in the social welfare department, the final numbers, expected to be tabulated by March-end, will help them to allocate funds from the SCSP/TSP corpus for specific guarantees as per the number of SC/ST beneficiaries.
In the 2024-25 budget, Rs 14,730.53 crore was allocated for the guarantees from the SCSP/TSP corpus, which comes to around 28 per cent of the overall Rs 52,000 crore set aside for guarantees. If the data justifies these allocations, they may continue in subsequent years too.
Larger questions
However, Siddaramaiah, considered the pre-eminent leader of the AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and SC/STs), is grappling with larger concerns that these funds must be utilised for socio-economic upliftment of the historically deprived Dalit communities, and not just for ‘temporary’ monetary schemes.
A delegation of Dalit leaders met Siddaramaiah recently and enlisted their demands ahead of the Budget. They urged the government to drop the contentious section 7C of the Act and utilise the funds for direct schemes for SC/STs.
As per section C of the Act, money from the corpus can be utilised for general social sector schemes like education, health, women and child welfare, labour and so on in accordance with the population of SC/STs in the state (24.1 per cent as per the 2011 census).
While the five guarantees come under this, 120 other schemes also come under the purview of section 7C.
Explaining the background of the SCSP/TSP Act, a top source from the social welfare department told DH that the Act was necessitated since previously Dalits were not getting funds as per their population in the Budget.
“Before 2013, the department would get 16-17 per cent
of the funds under the Budget, which would then be used for schemes meant for Dalits. However, this Act ensures that they get 24.1 per cent of the funds under each Budget, bringing accountability.”
Rs 39k crore funds
The source said section 7C was inevitable to the Act, adding that it was impossible to spend all the Rs 39,000 crore-odd funds under the corpus on exclusive programmes for Dalits.
“It’s a zero-sum game. Once we allocate 24.1 per cent funds for SC/STs under the Budget, it is inevitable that the money is spent on some general sector schemes, as per SC/ST population,” the source added.
A senior Dalit leader of the Congress took exception to the 7C section and said: “SC/ST development boards must get greater allocations. There are 10 boards and even if they allocate Rs 5,000 crore for these boards, each board will get Rs 500 crore. That way, those allocations will reach the concerned beneficiaries,” he added.
Irrespective of caste
Leader of the Opposition in the Council and prominent Dalit leader of the BJP Chalavadi Narayanaswamy said: “Guarantees are being given irrespective of caste. When other communities like Lingayats, Vokkaligas and Muslims are getting benefits through guarantee allocations, why are Dalits getting it through SCSP/TSP funds?”
These funds are special grants for asset creation like purchasing lands, education, building schools and so on, Chalavadi said and urged the government to scrap the 7C clause.
Other demands from Dalit leaders include providing better quality food in hostels for Dalit students, increasing the annual allocation under the SCSP/TSP corpus for the social welfare department from Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore and so on.
Holistic development
Can the Siddaramaiah-led Congress effectively deliver guarantee schemes for the remaining part of its term while also initiating holistic development initiatives for Dalits?
The chief minister's Budget speech on March 7 may throw some answers.