People's Democracy

FOR SC AND ST RIGHTS:

Demand for Legal Mechanism to Implement

Sub-Plan and Employment Quotas

The 20th Party Congress of the CPI(M) notes with concern that the 1980 Planning Commission guidelines for allocation of budgetary resources for the development of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population, has remained only on paper. Whereas the allocations for STs should be at least 8.2 per cent of the budgetary allocation for the central plan and the allocations for SCs should be at least 16.2 per cent, in this budget as previous ones also, the allocations are roughly half of what it should be. The shortfall for the three years since 2010 for the TSP is over 30,000 crore rupees, while for the SCSP it is at least 72,751 crore rupees.

The special component sub-plan for SCs and STs is to make up the huge gaps that exist between dalits and tribals on the one hand and the general population on the other. Residential areas and villages of tribals and dalits reflect the most shocking deprivation of minimum civic rights and facilities with no infrastructure or social development. Thus, the wanton violation of these guidelines has a direct impact of intensifying the grave injustices perpetrated on dalit and tribal communities. It is shameful that lakhs of crores of rupees have been either cut or diverted in the last decade from the funds accruing for ST and SC development. It is a similar situation with shortfalls in most state budgets.

The 20th Party Congress also notes with concern that the constitutional mandate for reservation of jobs in the government sector is not being implemented with a huge backlog in ST and SC quotas. With the drastic cutback in employment in government and public sector recruitment, the opportunities for employment in the organised sector for SCs and STs are shrinking. At the same time, in spite of assurances, the government has failed to ensure employment of SCs and STs in the private sector. At present they are employed only in menial jobs and as contract or casual workers.

Thus while the private sector takes full advantage of government largesse, it refuses to shoulder any social responsibilities. 80 per cent of investments in private sector industries are from public sector banks, they are provided land, electricity, water, transport, infrastructure, tax concessions etc by the governments. As per union budget 2012-13, the central government has bestowed Rs 5,28,000 crores on corporates in the form of taxes foregone. Despite drawing so much of public money and profiteering from it, these private corporates want to escape from the constitutional mandate of reserved quotas for SCs and STs.

In view of these realities, the 20th Party Congress demands:

·        A legal mechanism to ensure mandatory implementation of the Planning Commission guidelines for implementation of sub-plan and special component plan for STs and SCs respectively.

·        A legal mechanism to ensure that backlog  in jobs in government and public sector are filled within a timeframe to be specified

·        A new legislation to ensure reservations in the private sector.

It calls on the Party at all levels to build united struggles for these just demands of the STs and SCs.

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