TS MAKES TALL CLAIMS ON WELFARE SPENDS

Despite availability of funds, beneficiaries denied benefit

The Telangana state government claims to spend over `40,000 crore on welfare schemes every year, the highest in the country. But the truth is that very little of the money allocated in the budget for such schemes is actually spent and reaches the intended beneficiaries.

While the current fiscal will end in 37 days, not even half of the welfare funds sanctioned in Budget 2017-18 have been spent so far, defeating the very purpose of having welfare schemes.

This fact was revealed during the preparatory meetings being held for Budget 2018-19 by the finance department with all the concerned departments in the past few days.

The welfare schemes in the state are implemented by the backward classes welfare department, the social welfare department, the tribal welfare department and the minorities welfare department. All these departments were asked to submit details of budget spendings for 201718 and budget proposals for 2018-19.

Officials were shocked to see that the departments had not spent even half of the amounts allocated in 2017-18. This despite the fact that lakhs of students from BC, SC, ST categories are dependent on the fee reimbursement scheme and scholarships, and unemployed youth are waiting for subsidised loans for self-employment.

Yet all these departments have sought higher allocations in the new Budget over the previous one, without justifying how they would be able to spend the higher allocations over last year.

In the 2017-18 Budget an amount of `157 crore was allotted to SC department to finance students who want to pursue studies abroad but only `13 crore has been spent so far.

An amount of `130 crore had been sanctioned for constructing community halls and setting up Ambedkar statues, of which just `2.50 crore was spent. Of the `901 crore sanctioned for scholarships only `304 crore was spent. This despite the fact that the state government passed the new SC/ST Development Act to ensure 100 per cent utilisation of funds meant for these categories.

Only the Kalyani Laxmi scheme which gives `75,000 to perform the marriage of adolescent girls, was found to be somewhat better off with `110 of the allotted `210 crore spent. In the case of the Scheduled Tribes department, the situation is even worse.

The fruits of the threeacres of free land to Dalits, Kalyana Laxmi, scholarships, and development of BT roads in ST colonies have not reached the beneficiaries. For the BC department, the government sanctioned a huge amount of `5,000 crore, of which it could not spend more than `2,800 crore. Some seven lakh BC students are awaiting fee reimbursement and scholarships for the last one year.