Bengaluru, Sept 29: The Chief Minister of Karnataka has warned that officials will be jailed if they fail to spend funds set aside for development of SCs/STs under the Karnataka Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub Plan (Planning, Allocation and Utilisation of Financial Resources) Act 2013.
“This year onwards, we are implementing the punishment clause in the Act, and I have told officials that they will be in serious trouble if they don’t spend the funds,” said H D Kumaraswamy, who’s also the chairman of the SCP/TSP council, after holding an expenditure review.
The Act, implemented by the previous Siddaramaiah government, mandates the government spend nearly 25 per cent of budgetary allocation on development of the SC and ST communities.
For 2018-19, the government has set aside Rs 29,000 crore to be spent under the Act. The CM said though Rs 27,000 crore was earmarked during the Congress regime, it was not fully utilised. “Some departments have parked the unspent funds in banks. We want to put an end to it and ensure that all funds are used,” he added.
The CM said though the Act was implemented in 2013 and funds were being released, there were no guidelines on spending the money. “We have framed the guidelines besides starting the process of identifying beneficiaries. According to estimates, there are 1.4 crore beneficiaries,” Kumaraswamy added.
Comments
Add new comment