"Only one to two per cent of the total budget meant for welfare of Schedule Castes is being actually spent in Bihar," Punia told reporters.
The SC Commission chief is here on two-day tour to review functioning of projects for the welfare of the weaker sections.
"The state government is duty bound to spend at least 16 per cent of the Rs 28,000 crore outlay for running schemes for welfare of SCs but in reality it is spending not more than one to two per cent for the purpose," Punia, who is also Congress MP from Uttar Pradesh said.
Despite tremendous prospects for SCs in the special component plan in the Eleventh five year plan, the Bihar government till March 31, 2012 spent only 0.95 per cent of the total outlay "which is a disappointing", he said.
The SC Commission chief said more than 60 per cent of the SC population continue to remain below poverty line which is a "disturbing" fact.
He said while there are a large number of hostels for the SC students, but in Bihar there are only 143 hostels despite the fact that lot of the weaker section was not better.
Punia said though the Bihar government claimed of disbanding scavenging but according to a survey report there are 82,000 dry toilets in the state which cannot be cleared by machine and this shows SC people were involved in scavenging.
