Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday termed as "baseless" the allegations made by the Chairman of
National Commission for Scheduled Castes that crime against SC and ST communities in the state has increased.
"State chief secretary Atul Kumar Gupta has forwarded
entire data related to these issues to the NCSC while terming
the allegations of its Chairman PL Punia as baseless," an
official spokesman said here.
Punia during his visit to Lucknow on November 4 had
alleged that crimes against Dalits had increased in the state
and Special Component Plan (SCP) funds were diverted in other heads.
Gupta in his reply asserted that not even a single penny
of SCP had been diverted by the state in other heads and it
was utilised as per the guidelines of the Centre.
"The data provided to the commission would clear its
doubts, and if it wanted any further information the state
government could be sent to the Delhi to furnish all the
information they require," he said.
"Through his letter, Gupta has informed the Commission
that there was a decline of about 25 per cent in cases
registered under SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities)
Act-1989 during the current year, as compared to last year,"
he said.
Gupta said that the assessment of crime situation could
not be made on the basis of total cases registered but the
same can be done on the basis of number of crimes committed on the uniform population.
Speaking about SCP, the spokesman said that owing to the
average expenditure under Scheduled Caste, SCP was 60.7 per
cent during 10th five year plan (2002-07), while during the
regime of the current government the total allotted expenditure stood at 82.1 per cent, 91.7 per cent and 96.1 per
cent for the year 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 respectively.
PTI
