NCSK demands halting of developmental grants to UP government

Kapurthala, May 15 (UNI) The National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK) has asked the Centre to suspend all development grants to the Uttar Pradesh government, as it had diverted the funds meant for the welfare of scavengers.

''The commission has also written a letter to the Prime Minister on April 30 to suspend all grants to UP government for its failure to rehabilitate scavengers and halt the manual lifting of excreta by safai workers '', NCSK Chairperson Santosh Chowdhary said here today after reviewing the condition of safai karamcharis working in the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) here.

Talking to media persons she said that after an extensive tour of the districts of Agra, Mathura, Ferozabad, Etawa, Mainpuri, Hathras, Lucknow, Rai Bareilly and Amethi recently, she had come across the pitiable condition of scavengers. The commission had a meeting with the UP Chief Secretary on April 18 and came to know that there were 20,000 manual scavengers but the commission had the information that the scavengers number was three times higher than informed by the Chief Secretary, she added.

The Chairperson further alleged that out of the Rs 227 crores released by the Centre to the UP government under the National scheme for liberation and rehabilitation of scavengers, Rs 21 crores still remained unutilised . The UP government has also failed to submit the proper utilisation certificate to the government as it has diverted the funds for some other purposes, she claimed.

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