OBSERVER The Daily
Volume 14 | Issue 6
Monday, March 30, 2015
6,500 crores for minorites left unspent Nikhil M Babu
The state government has not spent over Rs 6500 crore funds allotted for scheduled castes for 2014-15. Documents obtained by The Daily Observer via a Right to Information request revealed that various government departments- until February - haven’t spent 56.5 percent of Rs 11,518.99 crores allocated for the so called lower castes. “This is not a surprise,” said Beena J Pallickal, a member of the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights, New Delhi, an umbrella organization of various dalit organizations. “It happens not only in Karnataka but everywhere else. This shows the importance government gives to dalits,” she added.
Beena, member of NCDHR, New Delhi
The Social and Welfare Department of Karnataka (SWD) is the nodal agency for monitoring the funds spent by various departments of the state. The RTI reveals that 19 out of the 33 departments haven’t submitted expenditure reports to SWD. Arun Furtado, Deputy Secretary, SWD, said: “It is like that, we have to call them100 times to get a report from them. It’s always the same thing.” According to a new bill passed by Karnataka in 2014, the state government had to form a committee headed by the Chief Minister for the planning and allocation of funds. Even though the state budget was presented in February last year, the committee headed by the CM decided on the projects only in October. This delay is cited as one of the main reasons for the huge sum of money remaining unspent. “Since it is the first time, there are some hiccups. This year there won’t be so many problems. The fact that funds can be transferred to the year following the immediate year would have made them (departments) lazy,” Arun added. Some departments which have spent a meager part of the funds allotted to them are: Youth Services - 5.21%, Public Works - 7.07%, Labor - 16.32% and Horticulture - 17.63%. Many schemes which come under these departments like Child Labour Rehabilitation, Insurance schemes, training programmes for SC/ST, Assistance to state poultry farmers etc will suffer due to the under spending. There were already allegations by various organizations that the government had siphoned about 50% of the funds in the 14-15 budget to general projects like building courts etc.
Advocating conversion with promise of ‘minority’ benefits Kimaya Varude Aparna Singh People from lower caste communities are being asked to convert to Buddhism if they want to take advantage of minority class government benefits. Campaign organisers hope to have over 50 lakh ‘Buddhists’ by next year’s census. According to the last census, there were just 3 lakh buddhists in the state. Hindus from lower castes cannot take advantage of benefits handed out by the government. The mass religious conversion could mean a 74 percent increase. The campaign is held to encourage people to mark Buddhism as their religion in the census application form if they are scheduled castes or scheduled tribes. Dalit organisations are asking people to do so in order to enjoy the privileges of being a minority. Hindu
scheduled tribes or scheduled castes are not able to receive the privileges and benefits a minority community gets from the government. State President of Karnataka Samata Sainik Dal, Dr. M Venkataswamy said, “SC/ST youths, all families of Karnataka should register their names as Buddhists in the religion column and in the caste column they can mention their respective caste or sub-castes. According to the last census of Karnataka there are more than 3 lakh Buddhists, after this census maybe it will cross more than 50 lakhs. We hope so because in the last 10 to 15 years we have been canvassing for this conversion.” In Census application form there is a column for castes. If a Hindu or Christian who is a scheduled tribe or scheduled caste then they will have to register themselves as Buddhists. They are no more Hindus or Christian. On March 1, 2015 the Karnataka Samata Sainik Dal (SSD), student
leaders, district level political leaders and other dalit groups along with the Buddhist group held a meeting. At the end of the meeting they came to a conclusion that the follower of Ambedkar will not call themselves as Hindus but Buddhists. They will have to register themselves as Buddhist in the court before the Census survey 2015 starts. In the press release of Boudh Sangharsha Sangh, the association has mentioned that the rights and benefits of schedules caste people will not be affected if they convert into Buddhism. In December 2013, President of Social Welfare Department had issued a circular where they have said that all the people who belong to Buddhism or have converted to Buddhism should be given schedulesd caste certification. According to the Constitution [Scheduled Castes] Orders [Amendments] Act, 1990, there are 101 scheduled castes and 50
scheduled tribes in Karnataka. Before the amendment in 1990, Buddhists were not included amongst scheduled castes. Nobody who is not a Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist can be a scheduled caste under the act. “In 1990 amendment there is a provision to get reservation for scheduled castes/scheduled tribes. Conversion to Buddhism will benefit reservation needs to be conveyed. We have been distributing this pamphlet there is a government order to register their name as Buddhist on getting benefit and reason for registration,” said Dr. Venkataswamy. However, President of SSD, Chand Miah said, “There are 250 members in our committee. Everyone has different religions. I am a Muslim and I don’t want to mention Buddhism as my religion. Most of us do not know about Buddhism.” National Secretriate Officer from National Campaign on Dalit Rights said, “We surely work for the dalit rights but religion is a very secular thing. It is a very personal
choice. If they think that Buddhism is providing them with dignity as oppose to Hinduism, so be it.” Aditi S (name changed), a law student, said, “Not all dalits are Buddhists. I am a Hindu and I believe that it is our personal choice if we want to mark Buddhism as our religion or not.”
Dr. Venkataswamy says this conversion will benefit all Dalits