13 STANDING COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT (2019 - 20) (SEVENTEENTH LOK SABHA) MINISTRY OF MINORITY AFFAIRS Action taken by the Government on the observations/recommendations contained in the Fourth Report of the Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment (Seventeenth Lok Sabha) on Demands for Grants (2019-20) of the Ministry of Minority Affairs THIRTEENTH REPORT LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT NEW DELHI September, 2020/Bhadrapada, 1942 (Saka) i THIRTEENTH REPORT STANDING COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT (2019-20) (SEVENTEENTH LOK SABHA) MINISTRY OF MINORITY AFFAIRS Action taken by the Government on the observations/recommendations contained in the Fourth Report of the Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment (Seventeenth Lok Sabha) on Demands for Grants (2019-20) of the Ministry of Minority Affairs Presented to Hon’ble Speaker on 10.09.2020 Presented to Lok Sabha on ___________ Laid in Rajya Sabha on ___________ LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT NEW DELHI September, 2020/Bhadrapada, 1942 (Saka) ii CONTENTS PAGE COMPOSITION OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL (iii) JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT (2019-20) INTRODUCTION (v) CHAPTER -I Report 1 CHAPTER- II Observations/Recommendations which have been 14 accepted by the Government. CHAPTER- III Observations/Recommendations which the 19 Committee do not desire to pursue in view of the replies of the Government. CHAPTER -IV Observations/Recommendations in respect of which 20 replies of the Government have not been accepted and which require reiteration. CHAPTER- V Observations/Recommendations in respect of which 26 replies of the Government are interim in nature. ANNEXURE Minutes of the 15th sitting of the Standing 28 Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment held on 06.08.2020. APPENDIX Analysis of the action taken by the Government on 30 the recommendations contained in the Fourth Report of the Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment (Seventeenth Lok Sabha). (Fifteenth Lok Sab iii COMPOSITION OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT (2019-20) SMT. RAMA DEVI - CHAIRPERSON MEMBERS Lok Sabha 2. Smt. Sangeeta Azad 3. Shri Durga Prasad Rao Balli 4. Shri Shafiqur Rahman Barq 5. Shri Bholanath 'B.P. Saroj' 6. Shri Chhatar Singh Darbar 7. Shri Y. Devendrappa 8. Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi 9. Shri Hans Raj Hans 10. Shri Abdul Khaleque 11. Smt. Ranjeeta Koli 12. Smt. Geeta Kora 13. Shri Dhanush M. Kumar 14. Shri Vijay Kumar 15. Shri Akshaibar Lal 16. Dr. Lorho S. Pfoze 17. Shri V. Srinivas Prasad #18. Shri Prince Raj 19. Shri Arjun Singh 20. Smt. Supriya Sule 21. Smt. Rekha Arun Verma Rajya Sabha 22. Smt. Jharna Das Baidya *23. Smt. Ramilaben Bara 24. Shri Abir Ranjan Biswas 25. Shri N.Chandrasegharan *26. Shri Biswajit Daimary *27. Shri Ashok Gasti *28. Smt. Mamata Mohanta 29. Shri P. L. Punia *30. Shri Ram Nath Thakur 31. Shri Ramkumar Verma _________________ # Nominated to the Committee w.e.f. 09.12.2019. * Nominated to the Committee w.e.f. 22.07.2020. iv SECRETARIAT 1. Smt. Anita B. Panda - Joint Secretary 2. Smt. Mamta Kemwal - Director 3. Smt. Madhu Bhutani - Deputy Secretariat 4. Smt. Shashi Bisht - Assistant Executive Officer v INTRODUCTION I, the Chairperson, Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment (2019-20) having been authorized by the Committee to submit the Report on their behalf, do present this Thirteenth Report on the action taken by the Government on the observations/recommendations contained in the Fourth Report of the Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment (Seventeenth Lok Sabha) on 'Demands for Grants (2019-20)' of the Ministry of Minority Affairs. 2. The Fourth Report was presented to Lok Sabha and laid in Rajya Sabha on 12th December, 2019. The Ministry of Minority Affairs have furnished their replies indicating action taken on the recommendations contained in that Report on 24th February, 2020. The Report was considered and adopted by the Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment at their sitting held on 6th August, 2020. 3. An analysis of the action taken by Government on the recommendations contained in the Fourth Report of the Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment (Seventeenth Lok Sabha) is given in Appendix. 4. For facility of reference observations/recommendations/comments of the Committee have been printed in thick type in the body of the Report. NEW DELHI; RAMA DEVI Chairperson, 6 August, 2020 Standing Committee on 15 Shravana, 1942 (Saka) Social Justice and Empowerment vi CHAPTER - I REPORT 1.1 This Report of the Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment deals with the action taken by the Government on the observations/recommendations contained in the Fourth Report of the Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment (Seventeenth Lok Sabha) on Demands for Grants 2019-20 pertaining to the Ministry of Minority Affairs. 1.2 The Fourth Report was presented to Lok Sabha and laid in Rajya Sabha on 12.12.2019. It contained 8 observations/recommendations. Replies of Government in respect of all the observations/recommendations have been examined and are categorized as under: - (i) Observations/Recommendations which have been accepted by the Government : Paragraph Nos. 3.23, 4.17, 5.23 and 5.24. (Total : 4, Chapter II) (ii) Observations/Recommendations which the Committee do not desire to pursue in view of the replies of the Government : Paragraph No. - Nil (Total :Nil, Chapter-III) (iii) Observations/Recommendations in respect of which replies of the Government have not been accepted and which require reiteration: Paragraph Nos. - 2.14, 3.22 and 5.25. (Total : 3, Chapter-IV) (iv) Observations/Recommendations in respect of which replies of the Government are of interim in nature: Paragraph Nos. 3.24. (Total :1, Chapter- V) 1 1.3 The Committee desire that action taken notes on the recommendations contained in Chapter-I and final action taken notes in respect of the recommendations contained in Chapter-V of this Report may be furnished to them at the earliest and in any case not later than three months of the presentation of this Report. 1.4 The Committee will now deal with the replies received from the Government which need reiteration or merit comments. A. Utilization of Funds under various Schemes Recommendation (Sl. No.1 Para 2.14) 1.5 The Committee had observed that out of the total budgetary allocation of 4700.00 crore during the year 2018-19 the actual expenditure incurred by the Ministry was only 3853.00 crore (81.98%). They were sad to note that Funds amounting to 851.62 crore, which could not be utilized, were ultimately surrendered by the Ministry during the year 2018-19. From the break up of Revised Estimates and Actual Expenditure in respect of all Schemes/components, the Committee had observed under utilization of funds in most of the important schemes regarding education & skill development. Further the Committee were not convinced by the routine reasons cited by the Ministry which inter alia included receipt of less than expected proposals from States/UTs/Central Waqf Council, lower number of beneficiaries under Post- Matric/Merit-cum-Means Scholarship schemes, unspent balances with Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF), less receipt of demand from University Grant Commission (UGC), less receipt of proposals from Programme Implementing Agencies (PIAs) under Schemes for Free Coaching, Hamari Dharohar and Nai Manzil as well as non-signing of Memoranda of Understanding with PIAs of Skill Development scheme due to imposition of Election Code of Conduct. 2 The Committee had also observed that in 2019-20, the expenditure incurred by the Ministry for different schemes till 31.10.2019 was only 27% and the remaining amount of 73% was to be utilized by 31st March, 2020. From the Ministry's future expenditure plan in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters of the year 2019-20, the Committee were unhappy to note that for quarter ending by 31.12.2019, out of 1880 crore proposed, only 454 crore was spent till 31.10.2019 and 1436 crore were left for utilization in two months upto 31.12.2019. The Committee were thus inclined to conclude that this trend was bound to impact the efficient & qualitative utilization of funds for different schemes. Since the major reasons cited by the Ministry were procedural matters, the Committee had recommended an action plan with clear targets devised for every scheme and strict guidelines to States to follow the same. The Committee had strongly recommend ed that the Ministry needs to play a proactive role in implementation of their schemes. The accountability of States/UTs should also be defined and fixed. In addition, the States/UTs need to popularize various schemes amongst the target population in Minority Concentration Areas and develop a foolproof mechanism to take more and more people in the ambit of various schemes. 1.6 The Ministry of Minority Affairs in their action taken note have stated as under: SCHOLARSHIP DIVISION “The Scholarship Section implements five schemes for educational empowerment of six notified minority communities viz. Pre-matric Scholarship Scheme, Post-matric Scholarship Scheme, Merit-cum-Means based Scholarship Scheme, Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) and Padho Pardesh. The details of expenditures made under these schemes during 2019-20 are as under: (In Crore) Name of scheme Budget Expenditure Balance %age of BE Estimates made till till date* expended 2019-20 date* Pre-matric Scholarship 1220.30 379.05 841.25 31.06% Scheme Post-matric Scholarship 496.01 89.06 406.95* 17.96% Scheme a Merit-cum-Means based 366.43 65.75 s 300.68 17.94% Scholarship Scheme Maulana Azad National 155.00 100.00 o 55.00 64.52% Fellowship (MANF) n Padho Pardesh 3 30.00 9.00 21.00 33.34% * as on 31.01.2020 The expenditure on Scholarship Schemes has been less up to January, 2020 as the architecture of the Schemes is such that maximum disbursement takes place in the last quarter of the fiscal year.