Mumbai: Social welfare minister from Shiv Sena, Sanjay Shirsat, publicly lashed out against funds being diverted from his department for the govt’s flagship Mukhya Mantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana. This followed a govt resolution that allocated Rs 410 crore from the department for the scheme. However, officials point out that there was no fund diversion. On the contrary, it is the norm to spread the budget for schemes across departments. Departments for specialised groups, including Scheduled Castes and tribal welfare, were allocated a portion of the funds for the overall scheme with the condition that they could only spend it on SC and ST beneficiaries.The state allocated Rs 36,000 crore for the Ladki Bahin scheme in the budget. Of this, Rs 28,290 crore came from the general budget. A sum of Rs 3,960 crore was allocated for the scheme to the social welfare departmentfor SC beneficiaries, and Rs 3,250 crore was allocated to the tribal welfare department for ST beneficiaries. “There was a clear allocation for the Ladki Bahin scheme through those departments in the budget itself. The budget was presented by the govt and cleared by the state legislature, which is the highest authority,” said a senior official.Subsequently, the state made an allocation of Rs 2,546 crore from the general budget to the scheme and made an allocation of Rs 410 crore from the Rs 3,690 crore given to the social welfare department for the scheme.It also made an allocation of Rs 335 crore from the Rs 3,250 crore provided to tribal welfare department. The only condition was that the funds could only be used for SC and ST beneficiaries.The same procedure is followed for Centrally sponsored schemes, and welfare schemes including Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, said a senior official. Even public work projects and rural and tribal road projects follow the same norm. “An allocation for rural roads is made to the tribal welfare department for roads passing through tribal districts,” said a senior official.Officials said the budget for the social welfare department was increased to accommodate expenditures for welfare schemes. In the state budget’s annual plan, the SC component was increased by 42%.