-The Times of India
Accompanied by the full commission, its chairman Dr P L Punia said, "As much as 31% of Punjab’s total budget outlay should be for the sub-plan as per the commission guidelines, but it could spend only 10.21% and the remaining amount was shifted to general category purposes."
The commission members found that Punjab has a big gap in literacy between general category and SC population, with only 56% of SCs being literate as against 69% from the general category.
The commission revealed a shocking data that the SC population of 31% in the state holds only 3% land with average holding as low as 0.6 acres.
Punia said 62% of families below poverty line in the state were from SC families. There is a need to think beyond agriculture for uplift of SCs as they are not engaged in agriculture, the commission observed.
Referring to poor health indicators, Punia said as against 6% infant mortality among general categories, the rate was around 16% among SCs.
The commission has asked the state government to prepare a correction plan before the 12th Plan kicks in April next year. Apart from reporting the dismal performance to the President of India, the commission will send a report to the Planning Commission of India for persuading Punjab to respect the sub-plan.
The commission has set a deadline of one month for preparing the SC sub-plan by the Punjab government.
The SC commission has noticed that a sub-committee to monitor the sub-plan headed by the chief minister himself has not met since 2006.
It has also noted that while no case has been registered over untouchability, Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore has been spent for the purpose.