Bengaluru: Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya on Thursday decided to issue a notice to agricultural department for not spending funds allotted for the development of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes people in the state.
“The agriculture department officials are supposed to send farm labourers from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities abroad. They failed to send farm laboruers to China and Israel for a study tour. It will enable them to know about drip irrigation and other methods being used to get more farm yield,’’ Minister Anjaneya told reporters here.
He said that he would write a letter to Chief Minister and Chief Secretary seeking permission to initiate stringent action against those officials working against the interests of SC/ST communities.
“The decision to send farm labourers abroad was taken in the meeting presided by the Chief Minister. The necessary funds were allocated for this purpose but the officials concerned did not take steps to send farm labourers abroad,’’ he said.
The minister has said the government has increased the limit of sanctioning loan to buy tractors for SC/ST farmers from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh but the agriculture department officials have been sanctioning only Rs 2 lakh.
“The agriculture department officials purposefully sanctioned only Rs 2 lakh for buying a tractor. I will issue notices to such officials shortly,’’ he said.
He said the state government has allocated Rs. 27,703 crore for the development of SC/ST communities in the state during this year. “The authorities have spent Rs 11,626 crore out of the Rs. 27,703 crore. The achievement of the target is 42 per cent. I hope to achieve 100 per cent achievement by March 2018,’’ he said.
The minister said notices were issued to 37 departments to attend the review meeting on the progress of utilization of funds allotted for the development of SC/ST communities but the officials of seven departments did not turn up.
“Officials of Higher Education, Kannada and Culture, Industries, Agriculture, Muzrai, Revenue, Animal Husbandry did not attend the meeting. We will issue notices to these officials seeking an explanation for their absence. We will have the review meeting in January,’’ he said.
The minister has also assured to look into the issue of 2,500 tribal people suffering from tuberculosis.
