Funds meant for Dalit students being diverted: DSS

NT Correspondent

Dalit Sangharsha Samitigala Okkuta held a protest at the Maurya Circle here on Thursday against the diversion of funds meant for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe students.

In a memorandum, the organisation stated that the Scheduled Castes Sub-Allocation (SCSP) and TribalSub Allocation (TSP) funds allocated for the benefit of students belonging to the scheduled castes and tribes were being misused by the authorities. “Such diversion of funds must be stopped with immediate effect and they should instead be used for scholarships for SC and ST students, who have been denied the facility for a couple of years now,” it stated.

DSS State Coordinator V. Nagaraj told News Trail that a specific allocation must be made in the forthcoming Budget. “That has happened in the past too, but our students have not benefited. This can be avoided by channelising the funds through the monetary cell of the social welfare department. Using funds allocated to our organisation for PWD works such as digging borewells, road construction or even Covid requirements amounts to misappropriation,” he said.

Creating an Ekadevakshi or single-window plan would streamline utilisation of the allocated funds for the benefit of the students. He said it was a matter of improving lives of 19,000 Dalit students studying various courses like medical, engineering and other graduation. “My sister’s friend, a medical student, was not permitted to take up her exams because she had not paid her college fee,” Varun, said a student activist at the dharna.

Attended by around 200 members of the organisation, the agitation was marked by speeches by prominent speakers. Dhalita Bhandiya highlighted the “deep concern” of the Dalit people through folksongs on the occasion.