Local bodies misusing funds: Minister

By Our Staff Reporter

PATHANAMTHITTA, AUG. 17. The Minister for SC/ST Welfare and Youth Affairs, Dr. M. A. Kuttappan, has alleged that the local bodies have been misappropriating, misusing and diverting the Plan fund allocation exclusively meant for SC/ST development in different parts of the State.

Participating in a `Meet-the-Press' programme at the Pathanamthitta Press Club today, the Minister alleged that the local self-governments had been utilising the Plan fund allocation for SC/ST development in a totally unrealistic manner leaving the downtrodden masses under-developed and in a state of utter poverty.

Dr. Kuttappan said that 61 taluk SC welfare offices in the State were arbitrarily closed to bring them under the block panchayats as part of the decentralised Planning programme by the previous LDF Government. There were allegations that the staff at these offices, who had been redeployed at the block panchayats, were harassed by the local body authorities to get clearance for various fund diversion schemes. Moreover, the block panchayat authorities had adopted a ``step-motherly attitude'' towards its SC/ST welfare wing, he alleged.

Dr. Kuttappan said the SC/ST Welfare Department's financial as well as administrative powers had now been limited to its 14 district offices in the State with the transfer of 80 per cent of SC/ST development funds to the local bodies.

``It is strange to find that a honeymoon cottage and a swimming pool are being constructed in Idukki district diverting the welfare fund for the downtrodden. Many local bodies in the State are yet to submit the utility report on their SC/ST development schemes to the Union Government so as to avail Central grant due to the diversion of funds,'' the Minister alleged.

When pointed out that the projects were approved by an expert committee headed by none other than the District Collector, the Minister asserted that ``it was a gross misuse of the SC/ST welfare fund by the people's representatives making a mockery of the very concept itself.''

The Minister alleged that the employment opportunities of the tribals in Wyanad had been hijacked by organised trade unions such as the INTUC and the CITU.

When 80 per cent of the SC/ST development funds had been transferred from the SC/ST Welfare Department to the three- tier Panchayati Raj system, as part of the decentralised Planning programme, the local body authorities had failed to ensure that the downtrodden masses benefited from the new system, the Minister alleged.

The Minister said that the UDF Government would promote traditional tribal medicine by setting up a Tribal Medicine Institute under the KIRTADS. A tribal folk art centre with regular shows would be set up at Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Kozhikode. The Government was thinking of setting up an international youth centre in Thiruvananthapuram, he added.

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