The Hindu Business Line : Maharashtra spending less on tribals

YEAR after year Maharashtra spends much less than the accepted norm of nine per cent on tribals and tribal areas. That perhaps is one reason for the continued neglect of the tribals and tribal areas where malnutrition deaths of children and poor health is rampant.

Coupled with the Chief Minister, Mr Sushilkumar Shinde's admission that there has been poor coordination between the various branches of the official machinery, this low spending actually shows the total indifference to the most disadvantaged population which is out of reach of most development programmes.

Only in 1993-94 and again in 1998-99, did the actual expenditure cross eight per cent of the budgetable outlay for the entire State. Rest of the years since 1993-94, when the norm came into being, to keep the spending on par with the population of tribals, it has been lower, sometimes as low as 4.26.

Such huge and unexplained gaps have obviously been detrimental to carrying the developmental push to the tribal areas, which all concerned concede, "has been neutral at best."

The officialdom and the political establishment begin to respond only when the media brings out stories of malnutrition deaths. Actually, a sub-committee of the State Planning Board which is headed by the Chief Minister himself, has recommended the outlays on Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) at 9 per cent of the Annual Plans because they were higher than the budgetable outlays and over the year the gap between the Annual Plans and the budgetable outlays have widened.

If reckoned against the Annual plans, the maximum expenditure had been 6.99 per cent in 1993-94 but, thereafter, it showed a steady decline to 1.56 per cent in 2002-03 and in the current year, it is projected at 3.26 per cent.

Disquietingly, the spending has been lower than the actual outlays for the TSP every year except 1993-94. As recently as in October 2003, the State Cabinet had to fund the TSP on the basis of just not population — 9 per cent — but also area — 16 per cent which houses the tribals — making the TSP a area development tool but even that has not been brought into practice.

An outlay of 13 per cent was considered appropriate but not implemented.

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