Chennai: The Madras high court has impleaded the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) as a party (respondent) in a PIL which sought a direction to authorities to furnish details of the exact sum that was diverted to other departments from funds allocated by the Centre for Scheduled Castes welfare.
When a petition by M. Selvaraj, State general secretary, Scheduled Caste Morcha of BJP, came up for hearing, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M.M. Sundresh impleaded the NCSC and directed it to file counter affidavit within three weeks. The bench posted the matter for further hearing on June 16.
The petitioner said the State government should spend the funds allocated for SC’s welfare by the Union Government, at the rate of 20 per cent of the total allocation, for that purpose alone and it should not be diverted for any other welfare programme.
From information gathered by him through RTI, it revealed that funds allocated for SC welfare were not fully being utilised and the same was diverted to other social welfare programmes. Therefore, he gave a representation to the Prime Minister on March 30, 2015, who forwarded it to the Commissioner of the concerned department at Chennai for investigation.
The investigation made by the department also revealed it was true. Hence, he filed the present petition to direct the authorities to furnish details of the exact amount that was diverted to other departments under different heads of accounts out of the 20 per cent allocated for the welfare of SCs. He also sought a direction to the authorities to collect such funds from the other departments and utilise the same for SCs welfare.
