Congress to Siphon SC ST Funds to Fuel Freebie Guarantees

Bengaluru: Karnataka's Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe welfare funds, totalling a significant Rs. 11,000 crore, is all set to be diverted by the Congress government to fulfill the party's five major freebie promises.

The funds are being reallocated from the Rs. 34,293-crore corpus of the Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan (SCSP-TSP), which is specifically intended for expenditure on SC/ST welfare. According to the Karnataka Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan Act, the government is required to allocate 24.1% of its total budget for the welfare of these communities.

The five guarantees made by the Congress are projected to incur expenses of approximately Rs. 52,000 crore in the current financial year, as indicated in Siddaramaiah's budget presentation. To fulfill these promises, the government plans to divert Rs. 7,700 crore from the SC Sub-Plan and Rs. 3,430 crore from the Tribal Sub-Plan.

In the previous financial year 2022-23, a sum of Rs. 28,234 crore was allocated for the SC and ST Sub-Plans. In the budget presented just before the elections for the financial year 2023-24, then Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai increased the allocation to Rs. 30,215 crore for SC/ST Sub-Plan.

The present shift of funds has ignited worries about the potential derailment of these essential welfare initiatives. Moreover, this move has raised concerns among various stakeholders who fear that the diversion of funds will have a detrimental impact on welfare programs meant for the SC and ST communities.

The government has attempted to defend its actions, asserting that the guaranteed schemes will also benefit the SC/ST community. However, the Social Welfare Minister, H C Mahadevappa, has admitted that there is a lack of data regarding the number of beneficiaries from these communities.

The BJP has criticised the move as contrary to the interests of marginalized communities. Former BJP Minister Sunil Kumar took to Twitter to express his concerns, asserting that the government's actions were illegal and amounted to gimmicks that halted genuine development projects.

Adding to the controversy, the Congress government has faced scrutiny for its struggle to secure funds for the fulfillment of its five freebie guarantees. The government's decision to proceed with the Gruha Lakshmi scheme despite advice from the finance department, which highlighted the financial impracticality of such large-scale funding every year, has added fuel to the fire.