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Political Tussles Over Dalit Welfare Funds in Vidarbha Raise Equity Concerns

Political Tussles Over Dalit Welfare Funds in Vidarbha Raise Equity Concerns
Political Tussles Over Dalit Welfare Funds in Vidarbha Raise Equity Concerns

The Vidarbha region of Maharashtra has become an arena for fierce tussles over welfare budgets.


In one recent incident, a routine district planning meeting in Vidarbha erupted into chaos when two legislators nearly came to blows, all over how to spend money earmarked for Dalit development. Such dramatic confrontations underscore how high the stakes have become for funds meant to uplift marginalised communities.


Over the past five years, multiple episodes across Vidarbha’s local councils, planning committees, and even the state legislature reveal a troubling pattern of disputes, delays, and diversions in allocating these critical resources.

Local Battles Over Welfare Funds


At the grassroots level, meetings that decide development spending have seen volatile political clashes. A stark example came from a District Planning Committee (DPC) session in Akola (Vidarbha) in 2025, where a heated argument over ₹36 crore designated for Dalit development spiralled into a physical altercation.


BJP MLA Randhir Savarkar and Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Nitin Deshmukh exchanged abuses and even lunged at each other amid debates on how the Dalit welfare money should be allocated.

The scuffle grew so intense that the district’s guardian minister, Aakash Fundkar, along with other MLAs, had to intervene to restore order. The confrontation did not end there. Rival supporters gathered outside the meeting venue, leading to another round of shouting and minor scuffles on the street.


Opposition members condemned the melee. Congress MLA Sajid Khan Pathan accused the ruling BJP of silencing dissenting voices in the district planning process. Local observers worry that such public political feuding could derail developmental work on the ground.


This is not an isolated incident. Municipal bodies and zilla parishads (district councils) in Vidarbha have also faced contention over Dalit welfare schemes.

Elected members often allege that funds meant for Dalit neighbourhoods, such as the state-sponsored Dalit Wasti Sudhar Yojana for upgrading basic amenities, are mishandled or unevenly distributed. In some cases, bureaucrats have had to step in to enforce spending of these funds when local politicians were at loggerheads.


For instance, the divisional commissioner in Nagpur division has previously intervened to reverse a Zilla Parishad’s decision that stalled disbursal of Dalit housing and infrastructure grants, insisting that the money be spent as planned for Dalit localities.


Such measures highlight how fraught local governance around social justice funding can become in Vidarbha’s districts. Every level of administration, from city councils to rural panchayats, feels the pressure of balancing political interests with the mandate to improve Dalit settlements.


Unfortunately, the past five years in Vidarbha provide several examples where that balance tilted into open dispute instead of effective delivery.


Funds Diverted and Political Infighting


Struggles over Dalit and Adivasi welfare funds have played out not just in local meetings but at the highest levels of Maharashtra’s government.


A major controversy erupted in 2025 within the ruling coalition itself, when Maharashtra’s Social Welfare Minister Sanjay Shirsat publicly criticised his own government for reallocating money away from schemes for Scheduled Castes (Dalits) and Scheduled Tribes.

Shirsat revealed that ₹746 crore meant for the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe development departments was diverted to the Mukhya Mantri Mahji Ladki Bahin Yojana, a flagship programme aimed at girls and young women.


He lashed out at this decision, arguing that the Finance Department had no right to commandeer funds earmarked for marginalised groups. “Earlier too, ₹7,000 crore had been diverted from the department. If it is not needed, they should close it down,” Shirsat remarked in frustration.


His outburst made headlines because it exposed a rift inside the government. Shirsat is a leader from Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction, whereas the Finance portfolio is held by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar of a rival party.

The episode thus became a very public feud, with Shirsat accusing Pawar’s department of high-handedness in raiding the social justice budget. The state’s Health Minister, Deepak Kesarkar, even admitted that ever since the Ladki Bahin scheme was rolled out, other departments have “had to struggle” due to budgetary strain, an implicit acknowledgement that money was tight for their regular welfare programmes after this diversion.


Opposition politicians seized on the moment to highlight what they saw as hypocrisy: “Earlier Shinde’s group left the previous government complaining Ajit Pawar wasn’t giving them funds. Now they’re back in government and he’s doing the same, so they can’t afford to complain,” quipped senior NCP leader Jayant Patil.


The barb underscored how shifting political alliances have not ended the tussle over Dalit-development monies, the fight merely changed arenas.


Another flashpoint has been the state’s controversial practice of financing new popular schemes using budgets originally meant for Dalit and minority welfare.

In late 2024, the Maharashtra government launched the Chief Minister Tirth Darshan Yojana, which offers free pilgrimages to senior citizens. The very first batch of beneficiaries, a group of elderly pilgrims from Nagpur in Vidarbha, was flagged off to Ayodhya in October 2024. While the initiative drew applause from participants, it soon sparked outrage in social justice circles because of how it was funded.


The pilgrimages were paid for by the Social Justice and Special Assistance Department, effectively utilising money intended for the advancement of historically marginalised communities to subsidise religious trips.


Critics argued that diverting Dalit welfare funds to a scheme unrelated to social empowerment “undermines the essential principles of social justice” and even raises legal questions. By bankrolling a pilgrimage programme from the Dalit-Adivasi budget, the state ignited debate about its priorities. Was it fair to use resources meant for empowering disadvantaged groups to instead fund a universal religious service?


The Tirth Darshan case exemplifies a pattern that activists in Maharashtra have pointed out for years, that when governments look for funds to fulfil high-profile promises, the earmarked pots of money for Dalit or tribal welfare are tempting targets for reallocation.

In Vidarbha, where Dalit communities continue to lag in development indicators, such redirection of resources has especially profound consequences. Every rupee steered away from a village drinking water project or a scholarship programme in a Dalit hamlet can mean a missed opportunity to bridge equity gaps.


Yet, as these episodes show, political expediency often wins out, and welfare allocations become coins in the larger game of power.

Debates on Fair Allocation and the Need for Equity

Debates on Fair Allocation and the Need for Equity for ST and SC in Vidarbha
Debates on Fair Allocation and the Need for Equity

These recurring controversies have fuelled vigorous debates in Maharashtra’s legislative halls about equitable resource distribution, debates often led by leaders from Vidarbha.


During a budget session in 2024, the Opposition trained its guns on the government’s perceived neglect of marginalised communities.

Maharashtra’s Leader of the Opposition, Vijay Wadettiwar, a veteran MLA from Vidarbha, argued that the budget had been crafted with upcoming elections in mind rather than social development. NCP legislator Jayant Patil went further, accusing the government of failing to announce any substantive new schemes for Dalits, Adivasis or minorities in that year’s plan.


Patil warned that the ruling alliance was effectively sending a message: “If you don’t vote for us, you won’t get funds”. Such pointed allegations in the Assembly reflect how deeply politicised the issue of fund allocation has become. Each side claims to champion the cause of the oppressed, yet each accuses the other of short-changing those very communities when in power.

Notably, this is a bipartisan phenomenon. A few years ago, when the coalition dynamics were reversed, it was the BJP that lambasted the Congress-NCP government for diverting Dalit sub-plan monies to other uses, and Vidarbha-based leaders who raised an outcry.


The consistent thread is that Dalit and marginalised populations in Vidarbha often end up hearing promises of development that don’t fully materialise on the ground.

Behind the political jousting lies a stark reality: substantial portions of welfare funds designated for disadvantaged groups simply do not reach them. Reports over the past decade reveal a persistent underspending of the Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) funds across India, and Maharashtra is no exception.


One analysis noted that since these special sub-plans began, an astonishing ₹2.8 lakh crore set aside for improving the lives of Dalits and tribals remained unused by successive governments. Activists describe the annual budgetary allocations for Dalit welfare as a “mirage”, announced on paper but mostly unspent in practice.


Only about 2% of the allocated funds are actually spent on Dalit issues, according to Paul Divakar of the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights.

This shortfall stems from a combination of bureaucratic inefficiency, lack of political will, and deliberate misdirection of funds to other purposes. Committees at various levels are supposed to ensure that these monies are properly utilised for community development projects, but observers note that these oversight panels in Maharashtra have proven “ineffective” and often fail to prevent lapses and diversions. The outcome is that year after year, crores of rupees nominally reserved for marginalised communities either lapse or get reallocated, while many intended beneficiaries in places like rural Vidarbha continue to live without adequate roads, sanitation, or economic support that such funds could provide.



The stakes in Vidarbha are especially high. This largely agrarian region has long suffered from economic imbalance and neglect compared to Maharashtra’s western belts. It also has a significant population of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes – Dalits constitute roughly 12% of Vidarbha’s people, with similarly large Adivasi communities in some districts.


Given this demographic reality, equitable allocation of development resources is not just a matter of justice but crucial for the region’s overall progress. Uplifting all communities, regardless of caste, requires that the budgets earmarked for Dalit and tribal welfare be utilised as intended, to build all-weather roads in Dalit hamlets, improve schools and health centres, provide scholarships and job training, and ensure basic amenities in marginalised localities.


When those funds are squandered or caught in political crossfire, it is these underprivileged citizens who lose out the most.

As recent electoral trends indicate, Dalits and other disadvantaged groups in Vidarbha are keenly aware of how governments handle their concerns. Many rallied behind parties they felt would address social equity, tipping the balance in several constituencies. Their expectations add pressure on any government to deliver tangible improvements.


The tumultuous battles over Dalit welfare funds in Vidarbha during the last five years serve as a sobering reminder of the distance between policy promises and reality. Every skirmish in a committee meeting or heated exchange in the legislature is essentially about the same question of who truly benefits from the money meant to uplift the marginalised?


For now, Dalit and Adivasi communities in Vidarbha can only watch as leaders trade blame over their development funds, and hope that, once the dust settles, genuine progress will follow the political noise.


The path to an inclusive future in Vidarbha lies in moving beyond these wrangles to ensure that allocated resources reach every community that needs support, restoring a measure of trust that no group will be left behind due to political gamesmanship.


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The NewsDirt is a trusted source for authentic, ground-level journalism, highlighting the daily struggles, public issues, history, and local stories from Vidarbha’s cities, towns, and villages. Committed to amplifying voices often ignored by mainstream media, we bring you reliable, factual, and impactful reporting from Vidarbha’s grassroots.

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