Mangaluru: The Confederation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes’ Organisations has urged the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) to recommend central legislation for the budgetary allocation of funds exclusively for the welfare and development of members of scheduled castes in the country.
Confederation president Lolaksha stated in a memorandum to Kishor Makwana, chairman of SCSC, that a significant section of scheduled castes, despite the implementation of various welfare schemes, still suffers from social exclusion, economic deprivation, and political marginalisation.
“To fill the gaps in development indicators, the Union govt needs to bring a central legislation for the budgetary allocation of funds exclusively for the welfare and development of members, families, and habitations of scheduled castes in the country, for which The Karnataka Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan [Planning, Allocation and Utilisation of Financial Resources] Act, 2013 can be taken as a model,” he urged.
As a first step, keeping the unique nature of the Union Budget in mind, proportionate budgetary allocations can be made in the departments of housing, social justice and empowerment, agriculture, industry, employment and training, labour, and the service sector. “We request you to send an appropriate recommendation to the Union govt in this regard as soon as possible,” Lolaksha stated.
Further, he noted that administrative steps are being taken to divide scheduled castes further by the govt of Karnataka in the guise of providing equal opportunity to all castes through internal reservation. “The Karnataka govt has constituted the Justice HN Nagamohan Das One Man Enquiry Commission in this regard. We have submitted our suggestions/objections to the commission and argued that family income must be made the criterion for providing internal reservation among various classes of people belonging to 101 castes which are notified as scheduled castes for the state of Karnataka,” he urged.
He also appealed to the NCSC to take legal action against the authorities who issued fake caste certificates and the persons who availed themselves of the same. “Thousands of fake caste certificates have been issued, thereby depriving the rights of genuine scheduled castes,” he added.