Govt to form panel for nomadic, semi-nomadic communities

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said that a committee under Niti Aayog will be set up to complete the task of identifying de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic communities not yet formally classified.

Presenting the Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha, Goyal also said that a welfare development board to frame special strategies for the benefit of the hard-to-reach de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic communities will be set up under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

He said a substantial increase is proposed in the allocation for welfare of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

The allocation of Rs 56,619 crore made in budget estimate of 2018-19 for scheduled caste, further increased to Rs 62,474 crore in revised estimate is proposed to be enhanced to Rs 76,801 crore in BE for 2019-20, an increase of 35.6 per cent over BE of 2018-19.

For the scheduled tribes also, proposed allocation in 2019-20 BE is Rs 50,086 crore as against Rs 39,135 crore in BE 2018-19, an increase of 28 per cent, the minister said.