Do not decrease funds, Centre told

MYSURU: N Manjunath, president of the state Congress’ SC wing, on Sunday objected to the Centre’s move to cut down allocation of funds under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
This will impact the poor in rural areas, affect the functioning of the zilla and taluk panchayats, he told reporters.
The Narendra Modi government is trying to deprive the rural sections of society of employment, he said.
The Centre has cut Rs 1,200 crore from the total allocation of Rs 3,150 crore for the scheme this fiscal.This has huge implications and the Centre should understand it, he stated.
This comes after rural development and panchayat raj minister H K Patil took objection to the Centre’s decision and decided to challenge it.
Manjunath asked the state government to set up an authority to monitor the management of the hostels in the state. He said that lack of monitoring has led to degradation of quality at the hostels managed by the social welfare department. The flow of funds to manage dalit hostels is huge. This has, however, not changed the quality of life for the dalit students, he said.
He said an authority should be put in place to monitor the hostels housing dalit students. The district-level monitoring committees, too, should be formed to keep a tab on them, he stated. The infrastructure available for dalit students at hostels is not up to the mark. There is lack of space to house inmates. Such issues do not get enought attention and an authority will do the job by holding regular meeting, he said.