TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: Goa’s ruling BJP coalition has decided to initiate a probe against the former Congress government for allegedly misusing funds sanctioned under tribal sub plan during its rule.
Tribal Welfare Minister Ramesh Tawadkar, at a press conference at BJP headquarters Monday has also rubbished allegations by Congress that the ruling coalition failed to implement various schemes for the Scheduled Tribe community in the State.
“They (Congress) have no moral right to point fingers at us. Twelve per cent of the budget under the tribal sub plan was diverted and misused by them. We will probe into this issue,” Tawadkar remarked.
Goa Pradesh Congress Committee Subhash Shirodkar last Saturday had alleged that hardly Rs 30 crore from total budget of Rs 300 crore for the ST community was spent by the government. The Opposition also alleged that application forms of STs who had applied for various schemes are still kept pending.
BJP leader Ganesh Gaonkar, who heads State ST Corporation, charged the Congress government of ill treating the ST community.
“The forms which were submitted to ST corporation way back in 2009 were pending. We don’t believe in pick and choose as it happened during the past regime. After we took over in 2012 we began clearing pending files and giving them the benefits under various schemes,” Gaonkar said, adding that former managing director of the Corporation was hardly in the office for executing the job.
The corporation, he said, has received Rs 27 crore as a share capital, which have been put to use.
