Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the Karnataka Government has decided to set up a separate secretariat for the implementation of welfare programmes for Scheduled Tribes.
He was speaking after inaugurating the Maharishi Valmiki Jayanti programme organized at Vidhana Soudha's Banquet Hall on Saturday as part of Valmiki Jayanti and presented the Maharshi Valmiki Awards.
"During our previous term, a decision was taken to allocate grants to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled tribes according to their population, in the Belagavi session. Therefore, more funds could be spent under the SCSP and TSP schemes. Earlier, only 6 thousand grants were allocated under these schemes. But during our previous term this amount was 6 thousand crore to 30 crore," the CM said.
"The previous government did not increase this amount. Our government has allocated Rs 34 thousand crore for these categories in this year's budget. Grant has also been earmarked, the CM added.
17.1 per cent of the total population of the state belongs to SC and 7 per cent belong to the ST category. According to the 2011 census, 24.1 per cent of the population belongs to SC and ST categories, CM informed.
CM Siddaramaiah further said that Karnataka has the distinction of being the first state to bring in a law to set aside a separate grant for the welfare of SC/ST categories according to this population.
"No government can change this law. After this law, from 2013 to 2018, our government allocated a total of Rs 88 thousand crores for SC/ST people. This grant is state-mandated for this size of population, " the CM said.
Maharishi Valmiki Jayanti is being celebrated in district and taluk centres.
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