Girls’ residential schools, hostels lack toilets: House panel for SC/STs tables report in K'taka Assembly

Belagavi: Most residential schools for girls and hostels meant for Scheduled Castes still lack basic infrastructure such as bathroom and toilets, besides facing shortage of water. 

This is one of the findings by the legislature committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, which tabled its report in the Assembly last week.

Rs 5k cr unutilised

A whopping Rs 5,000 crore remains unutilized in the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department for the last three years, while several dalit colonies do not have power connections and well-laid roads in many parts of the state, the report said. 

The committee, headed by Malavalli Congress MLA P M Narendra Swamy, has taken serious note of under-development of dalit and tribal communities, despite successive governments cumulatively releasing over Rs 2.5 lakh crore since 2013. 

This, after the then Congress government passed the Karnataka Scheduled Caste Sub-Allocation and Tribal Sub-Allocation (Planning, Allocation and Utilisation of Financial Resources) Act to make it mandatory to allot funds for welfare of SC/ST communities in proportion to their population.

Pending applications

The committee highlights that there are 17,700 applications pending with various boards and corporations under Ganga Kalyana scheme, but so far only 8,000 beneficiaries have been identified.

“Ganga Kalyana scheme is meant to provide free borewell connections to SC/ST farmers. But due to lack of funds, departments are not able to dispose of all applications. Similarly, there are several hostels for SC children that do not have basic facilities such as water connection, toilet and bathroom. Due to shortage of water, in many parts of the state, students, especially girls, are forced to go out at night to relieve themselves,” the report said.

Deemed expenditure

“The existence of 7D clause of this Act (deemed expenditure) is the biggest culprit, due to which our department could not take up works for empowerment of the dalit, tribal communities and semi-nomadic tribes in the state,” the report said.

It said, on the pretext of deemed expenditure, successive governments have spent huge sums for building roads and electrical infrastructure. 

Unfortunately, several dalit colonies not only lack power connections, but also road infrastructure, the report said.  

“Under deemed expenditure clause, the energy department gets a whopping Rs 3,600 crore annually. Landholding among SCs and STs do not cross 11%. Of this, only 4% have irrigation pumpset connections,” the report said.