PRAVEEN RASHTRAPAL, LOK SABHA MEMBFR, B-1, KHEMANI CHAMBERS, SHAHPUR, AHMEDABAD-380.001
The following minutes of the meeting of the Consultative Committee of Parliament, Ministry of Social Justice, held on Nov.12, 2001 are brought to your notice:
The two statements give the unpleasant picture how Dr. Ambedkar Foundation, New Delhi, is functioning.
Statement showing the corpus fund available, interest accrued, interest amount utilised and balance as on 31.3.2001 (rupees in crores).
| Sl.
No. |
Name of the project | Corpus amount | Interest on Corpus upto 31.3.01 | Interest amount utilised
31.3.01 |
Balance |
| 1. | Dr. Ambedkar National Award | 2.00 | 4.19 | 0.55 | 3.64 |
| 2. | Dr. Ambedkar International Award
|
2.50 | 2.02 | 0.18 | 1.84 |
| 3. | Dr. Ambedkar Overseas Fellowship
|
7.00 | 8.42 | – | 8.42 |
| 4. | Dr. Ambedkar Chairs (Rs.8 cr. Earmarked from Corpus Fund of Rs.40 cr. On 1.9.97 )
|
10.00 | 5.56 | 2.08 | 3.48 |
| 5. | Corpus Fund for general activites | 32.00 | 14.64 | – | 14.64 |
| 6. | -do- | 12.00 | 4.50 | – | 4.50 |
| Total (Rs.) | 65.50 | 39.33 | 2.81 | 36.52 | |
| Add corpus fund | 65.50 | ||||
From the above, it can be noticed that the amount of interest itself in balance with the Foundation is Rs. 36.52 crores and the concerned authorities have not spent for the objectives for which it was earmarked. The balance under the head General Activities is Rs. 14.64 crores and under the head Dr. Ambedkar Overseas Fellowship is Rs. 8.42 crores.
Dr. Ambedkar Library: The amount of interest as on 31.3.2001 in this head is more than the amount of corpus i.e. Rs. 7.00 crores and there are no plans with the govt. to spend this amount.
The statement showing the details of grant-in-aid received, interest earned and amount utilised is as under:
Statement showing details of grant-in-aid received, Interest earned and amount utilised as on 31.3.2001.
| SI.
No |
Name of the project
|
Amount of grant in-aid | Interest earned | Amount Utilised | Balance |
| 1 | Dr. Ambedkar National Public Library
|
5.50 | 4.35 | – | 9.85 |
| 2 | National Memorial | 10.15 | 1.80 | 7.12 | 4.83 |
| 3 | Publication Project CWBA | 6.64 | 3.60 | 3.15 | 7.09 |
| 4 | Gen. Activities Seminars | 1.15 | 0.38 | 0.75
0.12 |
0.66 |
| 5 | Ambedkar film | 6.60 | – | 6.60 | |
| Total (Rs). | 30.04 | 10.13 | 17.74 | 22.43 | |
| Grand Total 124.45 | |||||
The Foundation has not done anything for constructing Dr. Ambedkar National Public Library Inspite of Rs. 9.85 crores balance with them. The work of translation of collected works of Babasaheb Ambedkar is discouraging. As far as Gujarat is concerned, there is no activity during the last 3 years.
I had raised all these issues at the Consultative Committee meeting on 12.11.2001. No doubt the present Minister, Dr. Satyanarayan Jatiya, has taken over very recently and, hence, he requested for some time to look into all these issues.
Menaka mischief: His predecessor was Smt. Menaka Gandhi, now transferred to Animal Husbandry. I am writing this to you for information and publicity in your newspaper/magazine and also to take up the matter at appropriate level.
All those who are concerned about the welfare of Scheduled Castes will appreciate from the above that there is no sincerity on the part of bureaucracy to carry out various welfare projects inspite of funds being made available to them.
Reference:
DV Feb. 1, 1999 p.14: “Menaka Gandhi sacks head of Dr. Ambedkar Foundation” & p.15: “Dr. Ambedkar Memorial to be ready before “Dr. Ambedkar Era” begins”.
