Accusing the central government of diverting and denying them the SC & ST funds, thousands of protesters belonging to scheduled castes and tribes marched towards parliament and later staged a sit-in at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday.

The SC/ST budget adhikar andolan which organised the protest said that the government schemes do not benefit the lower section of society.

“In the budget 2012-13, a shortfall of Rs 27,526.78 crore to special component plan (SCP) and Rs 11,008.90 crore to tribal sub plan (TSP) in violation of the SCP and TSP guidelines has been noticed,” said the organisation in its press release.

Paul Divakar, who is a member of the SC/ST budget adhikar andolan, a coalition of several organisations across the country said that it is a struggle to reclaim rightful share of downtrodden people. “Our fight is to demand what is rightfully ours, we are fed up of government’s cheating,” he said.

Diwakar also added that in the 11th five-year plan period Rs 96,236.70 crore was denied to dalits and Rs 46,628.50 crore to Adivasis, making a total of Rs 1,42,865.20 crore for SCP/TSP of the union government alone.

“The amount would be doubled if the denial amount of funds of centre and states are to be aggregated,” said Diwakar.

The SCP and TSP were formed in 1978-79 for the beneficial of SC/ST where it was planned to spend Rs 16 for dalits and Rs 8 for adivasis out of every Rs 100 spent by the government. Diwakar also said that for the last 33 years, the government has no succeeded in keeping its promise even for once. 

Today’s protest was also addressed by NAC members Harsh Mander, Aruna Roy, CPI’s D Raja and Ramvilas Paswan.