Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Shri Durgadas Uikey today informed in Lok Sabha that the Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) framework has been continued but renamed as Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes (DAPST). NITI Aayog in 2017, issued revised guidelines for earmarking of funds for DAPST. Some salient features of the guidelines are as follows:

Ministries/Departments have been mandated to allocate certain percentage of total allocation of schemes.

Percentage of earmarking should not be less than 50 % of the population proportion or as decided by the task force or actuals whichever is higher.

Ministries/Departments are required to place the funds earmarked for SCSP and for DAPST under separate budget heads.

State-wise distribution of allocation under various Centrally Sponsored Schemes by Central Ministries/ Departments, especially under beneficiary oriented schemes should be done in proportion to population for SCs and STs in the respective States/UTs

Institutional mechanism for monitoring to be strengthened.

Government is implementing DAPST as a strategy for the development of Scheduled Tribes and areas having tribal concentration in the country including the state of Uttar Pradesh. Besides Ministry of Tribal Affairs, 41 Ministries/Departments are allocating certain percentage of their total scheme budget every year for tribal development under DAPST to bridge the developmental gap between Scheduled Tribes (STs) and non-ST populations and for various tribal development projects relating to education, health, agriculture, irrigation, roads, housing, electrification, employment generation, skill development, etc.

State Governments are also supposed to earmark TSP funds with respect to the total Scheme allocation, in proportion to ST population (Census 2011) in the State. The details of allocation and expenditure for TSP by States/UTs out of their own funds are available at https://statetsp.tribal.gov.in.

Schemes along-with funds allocated by the obligated Ministries/Departments for the welfare of Scheduled Tribes are given at Statement 10B of Expenditure Profile of Union Budget document in the link:

https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/doc/eb/stat10b.pdf.

The Union Government has taken several steps to ensure strict implementation of scheme guidelines and to create awareness among Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities about various tribal development schemes.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) convenes meetings with obligated Ministries/Departments from time to time to review the implementation of guidelines, allocation and expenditure of DAPST funds. The concerned officers of all major schemes of the obligated Ministries/Departments are requested to attend these meetings for proper and meaningful discussions. Allocation, expenditure, and implementation of individual schemes with DAPST allocation are discussed in the review meetings. The obligated Ministries/Departments are urged to adhere to the norms prescribed by NITI Aayog for allocation of DAPST funds under the schemes which provide specific benefits to the STs and the obligated Ministries/Departments are urged to ensure full and effective utilization of the allocated funds

The Ministry has undertaken two missions for development of STs through convergence of funds available with different Ministries/Departments under DAPST namely - Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi NyayMaha Abhiyan (PM JANMAN) and DhartiAabaJanjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyaan. For effective monitoring of allocations under the Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes (DAPST), scheme/programme-wise allocations by Ministries/Departments are reflected in Statement 10B of the Union Budget, which provides ministry-wise allocations for the welfare of Scheduled Tribes. Further, Statement 10BB and Statement 10BBB provide dedicated information on allocations for PM-JANMAN and DhartiAabaJanjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DAJGUA) respectively. To ensure proper accounting and non-diversion of funds, allocations under DAPST are reflected by Ministries/Departments under the minor head ‘796’ in their Detailed Demands for Grants.

An online monitoring system (https://stcmis.gov.in) has been developed by MoTA for tracking DAPST funds. The system captures data directly from the Public Finance Management System (PFMS) and enables real-time monitoring of expenditure vis-à-vis allocations by different Ministries/Departments. In addition, interactive dashboards on the PM Gati Shakti portal provide ministry-wise and intervention-wise progress monitoring using real-time data, enabling targeted planning and gap analysis for Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs).

For proper accounting and monitoring and to ensure their non-divertibility to any other scheme, funds allocated under DAPST are shown by all the obligated Ministries/Depts under the minor head ‘796’ below the functional major Head/Sub Major Heads in their ‘Detailed Demands for Grants’. Cases of irregularities are dealt with as per the punitive provisions under each scheme or guideline as per the rule applicable to the respective case.

At present, Ministry is not considering to introduce any legislation at Central level to improve fund allocation and utilization due to following reasons:

• In the Union Budget 2026-27, an amount of Rs. 1,39,189.53 crore (excluding UT allocation) has been allocated as DAPST funds (BE) out of the total scheme budgetary allocation of obligated Ministries/Departments which is almost six times increase in DAPST funds allocation (BE) than that of FY 2016-17 (Rs. 23206.14 Crore).
• DAPST fund utilization has been more than 92 % of RE during last five years.
• For proper accounting and monitoring and to ensure their non-divertibility to any other scheme, funds allocated under DAPST are shown by all the obligated Ministries/Depts under the minor head ‘796’ below the functional major Head/Sub-Major Heads in their ‘Detailed Demands for Grants’.
• NITI Aayog regularly reviews existing guidelines, and issues updated or new guidelines as needed.
• The Ministry has undertaken two missions for development of STs through convergence of funds available with different Ministries/Departments under DAPST namely-PM JANMAN and DAJGUA. Enacting the bill, may limit the scope of DAPST and restrict the Ministry to launch new initiatives like these for development of ST and tribal areas in saturation mode.

Further, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu have enacted legislation to ensure adequate allocation and effective expenditure in respect of State Tribal Sub Plan.

RN/

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