Lok Sabha Question No. 2305 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2015-08-04
Subject: Infrastructure for Development of Scheduled Castes
Ministry: SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT
Asked by: (ADV.) JOICE GEORGE

**GOVERNMENT OF INDIA**

**MINISTRY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE & EMPOWERMENT**

**LOK SABHA**

#### UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2305

#### TO BE ANSWERED ON 04.08.2015

**2305. INFRASTRUCTURE FOR DEVELOPMENT OF SCHEDULED CASTES**

**ADV. JOICE GEORGE:**

**Will the Minister of SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT be pleased to state:**

(a) whether the Government has any proposal to improve the habitats of Scheduled Castes;

(b) if so, the details thereof; and

(c) the details of funds provided and its utilization for improving the infrastructure and other facilities for the Scheduled Castes?

**ANSWER**

MINISTER OF STATE FOR Social Justice and Empowerment

**(SHRI VIJAY SAMPLA)**

(a) and (b) Various Ministries have formulated a number of  policies/programmes/schemes to improve the habitats of the citizens of the country, which inter-alia cover the Scheduled Castes also. Some of the Schemes being implemented by various Ministries for provision of basic facilities  in the Country are as follow:-

|   **Sl.No.** | **Facility**                         | **Scheme**                                         | **Ministry**                            |
|--------------|--------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------|
|            1 | Potable Water                        | National Rural Drinking Water Programme            | Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation |
|            2 | Sewage facilities, Toilet facilities | Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan                              | Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation |
|            3 | Primary Health Centres               | National Rural Health Mission                      | Ministry of Health and Family Welfare   |
|            4 | Pucca dwelling units                 | Indira Awas Yojana                                 | Ministry of Rural Development           |
|            5 | Road connectivity                    | Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act      | Ministry of Rural Development           |
|            6 | Electricity                          | Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyuti Karan Yojana (RGGVKY) | Ministry of Power                       |

Additionally, for integrated development of Scheduled Caste (SC) majority villages in the country, the **Scheme of Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY)** was introduced in the Financial Year 2009-10.

The basic criterion for selection of villages under the Scheme is the percentage of Scheduled Caste population in the villages. Scheduled Caste (SC) majority villages (having > 50 % SC population) are to be covered under the Scheme.  The development of the villages has to be ensured through:

i) convergent implementation of existing Schemes of the Centre and State Governments, and

ii) the works which could not be covered under (i) above are to be taken up under the gap filling component, for which funds amounting to Rs 20 lakh per village will be provided as Central Assistance.

In the initial phase, the coverage of the Scheme was as follows:

|    S.No | State            |   No of villages |
|---------|------------------|------------------|
|       1 | Assam            |              100 |
|       2 | Bihar            |              225 |
|       3 | Himachal Pradesh |              225 |
|       4 | Rajasthan        |              225 |
|       5 | Tamil Nadu       |              225 |
|       5 | Total            |             1000 |

In January, 2015, the scheme was approved for expansion to cover 1500 new SC majority villages across 10 States, as follows:

Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Assam.

1. the details of funds provided and its utilization under PMAGY are as follows:

For the pilot phase:

|   S.No | State            |   Central Assistance (in cr) |   Utilization Certificates received (in cr) |
|--------|------------------|------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|
|      1 | Assam            |                        20.10 |                                       20.10 |
|      2 | Bihar            |                       45.225 |                                     45.2233 |
|      3 | Himachal Pradesh |                       45.225 |                                          32 |
|      4 | Rajasthan        |                       45.225 |                                      45.225 |
|      5 | Tamil Nadu       |                       45.225 |                                      45.225 |

For the expansion phase, the amount released till date is as follows:

i) Punjab: Rs 18.70 Crore

ii) MP: 7.70 crore

iii) Haryana: 1.20 crore

iv) UP: 1.00 crore

v) Andhra Pradesh: 0.70 crore

vi) Telangana: 0.60 crore

vii) Karnataka: 0.10 crore

The Schemes of other Ministries mentioned at ((a) and (b)) above are not targeted exclusively towards SCs. Hence details of funds utilized for SC welfare exclusively under such Schemes, are not available.

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