Dalit Human Rights Organisation for Justice (DHROJ) activist Ashok Mahindra has accused the respective governments in the state of mishandling of funds sent by the Centre for the welfare of the scheduled castes.
"If one distributes the central funds among the target beneficiaries properly, each Dalit family of the state would get Rs 1 lakh," claimed the activist.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Mahindra said, "The central governments gave funds amounting to Rs 15,730 crore to Punjab under various schemes for the scheduled castes. The previous Congress government in the state failed to give details as to where it spent Rs 4,689 crore out of the total money sent by the central government."
He said, "The SAD-BJP government also got Rs 11,543 crore for the welfare of the scheduled castes, but failed to spend them on their welfare."
Mahindra said, "There are 15,73,730 scheduled caste families in Punjab and each family would have got Rs 1 lakh each if the respective state governments would have handled the money properly."
"The Punjab government issued an ordinance in July 2007 to implement the scholarship scheme for the students from the reserved categories with central-sponsored funds. Beneficiary students are supposed to get free higher education after class 12. But there is no mention of any such scheme in the prospectus of any college across the state," said Mahindra.
{{/usCountry}}"The Punjab government issued an ordinance in July 2007 to implement the scholarship scheme for the students from the reserved categories with central-sponsored funds. Beneficiary students are supposed to get free higher education after class 12. But there is no mention of any such scheme in the prospectus of any college across the state," said Mahindra.
{{/usCountry}}He said, "According to the scholarship scheme, every educational institute would send the Punjab government a list of students who are getting free higher education. Mehar Chand Polytechnic in Jalandhar is an exception that sends the list of beneficiary students. The institute was supposed to claim a scholarship of Rs 1.7 crore from the government but the state authorities did not send the funds. Similarly, there are a few other colleges which have sent the lists to the government, but did not get the funds."
He said, "It is an irony that the state government did not publicise the scheme despite the fact that the central government provided funds to make people aware of the scheme through advertisements."