SOCIAL JUSTICE MINISTRY MAKES RS. 63.15 CRORE ANNUAL PLAN ALLOCATION FOR NORTH-EAST

---

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has allocated Rs. 63.15 crore for various schemes and programmes in North Eastern Region out of its annual plan outlay of Rs. 1410 crore for 2003-04. The Ministry has been placing special emphasis on delivery of services in the region. Accordingly the proposals received in the Ministry for grant-in-aid from this region are considered on priority.

In view of the fact that North-eastern region has only 2% population of scheduled castes, the Ministry decided in November 2000 to allocate 2% of its grant for the development of scheduled castes while maintaining 10% for other sectors as per the guidelines of the Planning Commission. The Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry made lump sum allocation of Rs.63.87 crore for the northeastern states including Sikkim last year. The maximum allocation of Rs.10.34 crore was made to Assam followed by over Rs. 5.96 crore to Tripura. Manipur was allocated about Rs.4.45 crore while Sikkim got over Rs.4.04 crore.

The rehabilitation of the persons with disabilities remained one of the primary concerns in the region. Rs. 8.63 crore were allocated to the eight states under the National Programme for Persons with Disabilities. In Assam, the development of the Scheduled castes was given priority. The state received about Rs.5.13 crore as special component assistance under special component plan for the development of scheduled castes. Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Tripura were allocated funds for pre and post matric scholarship schemes for scheduled castes and OBCs. Prevention and control of Juvenile Social Maladjustment was also one of the priority areas in all states in the region except Arunachal Pradesh.