Maharashtra to raise outlay for SCs, STs

Maharashtra will make allocations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the next budget in proportion to their population.

Allocations for SCs and Adivasis would be 13 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively, in the next state budget, which was proportionate to their population, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told Business Standard.

The decision has come in the backdrop of a continuous decline in allocation for them in the Plan outlay over the years.

Deshmukh was here yesterday in connection with a meeting with the Planning Commission, which has increased the state's Plan size for 2005-06 by around Rs 1,800 crore to Rs 14,829 crore.

Deshmukh said the state government had taken several steps to address the problems of farmers in the Vidarbha region, which was witnessing a spate of suicides by farmers. The government was trying to get to the root of the problem to formulate a long-term strategy, he said.

"Suicide by farmers is a fact. But all of them are not necessarily debt-related. We have a survey report, conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. We are now getting another survey done by the Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics, Pune, to find out the reasons behind these suicides," he said.

The government has announced a Rs 1,000-crore package for farmers. Every farmer in the six districts of the Vidarbha region has been given a credit card worth Rs 25,000.

Their loans have been re-scheduled up to five years and the interest has been paid up. Loans given by unlicensed money-lenders have also been waived.

"The government is doing its best to solve the problem. But we also need some non-government organisations to pitch in and provide counselling to farmers," Deshmukh said.

He defended the state employment guarantee scheme, which has come under criticism for corruption and irregularities at the implementation stage.

"Every scheme has some flaws, but that does not mean it is bad. Ours is still the best scheme," the chief minister said.

The national rural employment guarantee scheme has been implemented in 12 districts of Maharashtra but it is likely to serve only as a supplement to the state-run scheme, which is far more comprehensive in its scope.

Under the state employment guarantee scheme, youth above 18 years has to be provided employment the entire year, compared to the national scheme, which provides employment to only one person from a family for 100 days only.

"Ours is a more liberal and comprehensive scheme. Besides, the state scheme is an Act, which cannot be repealed and replaced by the national scheme," he said.