Narendra Modi government to give its own colour to ‘December 16’ fund scheme

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has decided to give its own colour to the ‘December 16’ fund scheme started by the UPA II government after the brutal rape incident in Delhi, which failed to take off so far.

As the Rs 1,000 crore funds largely remain unspent in the last two years, the Prime Minister’s Office is mulling forming a central corpus of funds for compensation for women who have suffered brutal violence and sexual assault.

The Union home ministry is now working on the idea of developing the central pool of funds to the tune of at least Rs 100 crore, which will be pooled jointly with state governments to women who are victims of targeted violence and sexual assault.

While the idea is still in its nascent stages, top sources said the central funds would be in addition to the existing states’ schemes for the compensation of victims of sexual assault.

It shot off a letter to all states and Union Territories asking them to reveal how much money had been spent under the victim compensation scheme in last five years.