Mumbai, Oct 29: Committing itself to the cause of social justice, Maharashtra government today said it would draft an act making it mandatory to allocate funds for various schemes for tribals and scheduled castes in proportion to their population. "The ruling DF coalition will soon come out with a law, making mandatory for the government to allocate funds from the total plan outlay for various schemes of tribals and scheduled castes in proportion to their population," Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting here.
"Maharashtra is probably the only state in the country to come out with such a law for the poorer sections of the society," Shinde said.
This was an attempt by the government to commit itself to the cause of delivering social justice, Shinde said.
Tribals constitute nine per cent of the total population of the state while that of scheduled castes is 11.09 per cent, the Chief Minister informed.
Henceforth, funds would be allocated for developmental schemes catering to tribals and SCs keeping in view their population of tribals.
The funds would be allocated for schemes in two categories, infrastructural projects and those benefitting individuals, Shinde added.
Bureau Report