No betrayal of SC/ST, our guarantees benefit them too: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has stoutly denied diverting funds meant for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribe schemes to the Congress party's five guarantees. "A disinformation campaign has been launched against my government on this issue. Let me assert that there has been no diversion of SC/ST funds," the chief minister said.   

It may be recalled that the BJP has been criticizing the Siddaramaiah government for betraying the interests of SC/STs by diverting the funds to five guarantee schemes. 

According to the chief minister, only a portion of funds -- Rs 11,144 crore out of the total Rs 34,294 crores -- meant for SC/ST has been given to the guarantee scheme. 

"In fact, these five guarantee schemes are benefitting SC/ST communities also. So, there is no question of betrayal at all," Siddaramaiah said. 

Explaining the break-up of the allocation of funds, Siddaramaiah said Rs 5075 crore has been allocated to the Gruha Lakshmi scheme, Rs 2779.97 crore for the Anna Bhagya scheme, Rs 812 crore for the Gruha Jyothi scheme and Rs 67.50 crore for the Shakti Yojana. He reiterated that these schemes are beneficial to SC/ST communities as well. 
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The chief minister justified his government's decision to allocate funds to the schemes by saying that between 2019 and 2023, funds were diverted to other departments such as skill development, energy, transport and women and child development.

"In fact, there is a provision to allocate funds under SCP and TSP to the respective departments," Siddaramaiah explained. Against this backdrop, the departments in question have experienced a reduction in grant allocation. Furthermore, it has been explicitly stated that the current budget is directed towards programmes that prioritise benefiting recipients.