Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Renuka Singh Saruta has revealed official records indicating that funds worth 224 Crore rupees have been approved vy the government for Boys & Girls Hostel activities during 2017-2020. In response to Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No 446, the Minister has published such statements. The official document can be downloaded as PDF from the PQARS portal at pqars.nic.in.
As per official records from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, funds worth Rs 16776.19 lakh, Rs 14935.83 lakh and Rs 22490.60 lakh has been approved for construction, maintenance and development of Hostels for ST Boys and Girls across the country. These funds have been resourced from Grants under provisions of Article 275 (1) of the Constitution of India.
The Minister has published these statements in response to the aforementioned unstarred question of Rajya Sabha raised by Shri Prashanta Nanda. Nanda requested the Minister of Tribal Affairs to state the amount of funds disbursed by the Government under the Scheme for Hostels for ST Boys and Girls during the past three years, state-wise.
In response to the said queries, MoTA has informed that previously, a scheme named Hostels for ST Girls and Boys was operational. Under this scheme, State Governments were provided funds for construction of Hostels. The activity of construction of Hostels has been subsumed under two other schemes now. These are the Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub-Scheme (SCA to TSS) and Grants under Article 275 (1) of the Constitution of India.
The Minister added to her statements that during the last three years, under the scheme of Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub-Scheme, no funds have been granted to State Governments. The funds were provisioned from the scheme of Grants under Article 275 (1) of the Constitution of India.
It can be seen that during 2019 to 2020, the maximum funds disbursed were to the State Government of Chhattisgarh (6522.68 lakh rupees). Even during the earlier years, Chhattisgarh has remained at the top in terms of the amount of funds disbursed for construction and related activities of Hostel for ST Boys and Girls.
On the other hand, no funds have been disbursed to the states of Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttarakhand during the last three years from 2017 to 2020.
Among other important states where funds have been disbursed during the last three years are Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal etc. In Madhya Pradesh, Rs 2200.37 lakh were disbursed in 2017-18 and Rs 2850 lakh during 2019-20. However, no funds were disburses in the period between.
