New Delhi: The newly-elected Congress government in Chhattisgarh has found that funds from several social welfare schemes, including District Mineral Foundation and Compensatory Afforestation, were diverted by its predecessor to fund the Centre’s flagship initiative Ujjwala scheme, which provides free LPG cylinders to below poverty line families. Chhattisgarh government’s records reveal that the Raman Singh-led BJP government had made a budget provision of Rs 55 crore for the Ujjwala scheme. However, it diverted finances from other schemes, including Rs 29 crore from a labour department scheme, Rs 212.90 crore from environment cess, Rs 47.08 crore from Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) and Rs 162.38 crore from District Mineral Foundation (DMF). CAMPA oversees compensatory afforestation which needs to be done in lieu of diversion of forest land for non-forestry use. As per the guidelines, CAMPA funds cannot be diverted for any other purpose. DMF, a non-profit trust established in 2015 in all mining districts, has been planned as a dedicated board, which would work for the interest of persons and areas affected by mining. Like CAMPA, DMF guidelines prohibit any diversion to any other purpose. This is not the first time that diversion of DMF funds has been reported from Chhattisgarh. Last year, Centre for Science and Environment had pointed out that DMF funds in Chhattisgarh’s Korba district were used for multi-level parking lots and convention centres in towns.