SC/ST Act: Tamil Nadu deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam meets Ravi Shankar Prasad over SC ruling

New Delhi: A day after the Tamil Nadu government moved the Supreme Court seeking a review of its recent judgement on the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Thursday met Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad over the judgement’s impact in the state.

Panneerselvam, heading a delegation of MLAs and MPs including Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai, also met 15th Finance Commission Chairman NK Singh and over the allocation of funds to the state.

“We met the Union law minister regarding the Supreme Court’s judgement diluting some provisions of SC/ST Atrocities Act. We apprised the Minister about the issues arising in the state and told him about the review petition. The Minister said even the Centre was facing similar situation,” Panneerselvam told reporters.

After meeting with 15th Finance Commission Chairman N K Singh, he said, “We explained to him about the shortage in funds allocated to Tamil Nadu and its consequences. For example, in the 14th Finance Commission funds released to the state were Rs 7,000 crores less than what was promised.”

“TN has been continuously subjected to natural disasters - severe drought, cyclone and floods. In this case, disaster management fund is falling short. The state is spending on all these which is causing fund crunch,” he said, adding that the chairman NK Singh assured them to consider their requests and come out with a decision. The Deputy CM also blamed previous Congress and DMK governments at the Centre and in the state respectively, for not taking steps to form a Cauvery Management Board during their tenure.