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As usual, the majority community is the favourite whipping boy for the minority communities. Not only the minorities have been neglected in the general scheme of things, the special funds meant for overall development of the minorities have been misappropriated at certain levels. And as such, the majority community is being perceived as the party at fault. This is somewhat true in most cases, but not always. Impact assessment of several special schemes and programmes meant for either the tribals or backward castes and classes or minorities have shown repeatedly that the benefits do not really reach the intended communities. Manipur is not an isolated case in this regard, it is everywhere. Tragedy is that, not everyone cares to look deeper into the issue or investigate the possible areas of fund leakages of such special funds. But, most people are ready to jump to conclusions or play the blame game without verifying the facts and circumstances. This has been the case of Manipur, where the majority community is blamed for anything under the sun. One of the major complaints in the state has been that, there is a visible disparity in the distribution of development funds between the valley and the hills and that the funds meant for the hills had been misappropriated by powerful people from the majority community. Recently, the state Works Minister Dr Kh Ratankumar had clarified that there is no disparity with regard to fund allocation for development works in the hill districts and the valley in the state. On the UNC allegations regarding the lopsided release of Cheque Drawal Authority and non providing of funds for development works in the hill districts as reported by several local dailies, the Minister clarified that the government is not biased in funds allotment to hill and valley districts. The Minister had further said that the department has provided a sum of Rs 6335 lakhs out of Rs 12835 lakhs for SPA 2010-11 road works to the five hill districts which is 49.357 percent of the total fund. While the valley has four districts, the hill region of the state has five districts. However, seventy percent population of the state is in the valley. The state Works minister might have been talking about the allocation of SPA funds for a financial year, but we must also understand that it is representative of the allocation every financial year. In the allocation of funds, the hill districts also gets its due share from the general state allocation while it also gets special funds from the central government in the form of Tribal Sub-Plan. The Tribal Sub-Plan strategy adopted during the Fifth Plan is being implemented by the Centre as well as the State Governments through various schemes. In addition to Special Central Assistance to the Tribal Sub-Plan, grants are also being provided to the state governments to implement specific schemes for the welfare and development of Scheduled Tribes. The sub-plan provides for a budget component, of 8% for central ministries/departments and in proportion to tribal population, in states to be spent on programmes and schemes for the tribal populace. Who handles these funds and special schemes? In every government that has been formed in the state since the statehood in 1972, the department of Tribal Development or Hills has always been with a Minister from the hills or from among the tribal population. The various schemes have been implemented through the tribal MLAs and more recently through the ADC members. And most of the development works in the hill areas had been undertaken through the tribal contractors. Besides, the state bureaucracy is also controlled by the tribal civil service officers. In the last few decades since independence, the majority community did not have much of say in the affairs of the state. And it is still prevailing now.
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