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-The Telegraph
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Ministries are in the dark over control of the Rs 1,000-crore &quot;Nirbhaya Fund&quot;, announced in last month's budget and named in the Delhi gang rape victim's memory, despite government declarations of urgency in dealing with women's safety issues.
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While some ministers believe the home ministry will be the nodal agency to handle the funds, others reckon that the finance ministry will take the reins and disburse the cash to ministries for dealing with women-related schemes.
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However, the women and child development ministry was the first off the block to stake its claim to the corpus by writing a letter to the Prime Minister two weeks ago. It awaits the final go-ahead.
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Finance minister P. Chidambaram had not allotted the fund to any specific ministry when he announced the proposal in the Union budget on February 28.
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But women and child development minister Krishna Tirath, who pushed and got many of her proposals incorporated in the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill prescribing tougher punishments for crimes against women, wants the corpus to be given to her ministry.
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She has prepared a draft plan on how she intends to use the funds and is preparing to send a second letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying her ministry should be made the nodal agency.
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&quot;The minister will send the letter on Monday (April 1). The Prime Minister has been out of town recently. She has her plans ready and we are hoping we will get the corpus as we are the nodal agency in dealing with women's issues,&quot; said an official of Tirath's ministry.
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Sources indicated that the ministry was planning to disburse the funds through its existing schemes that deal with the safety and empowerment of women and not create any new standalone programme for the purpose.
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Prem Narain, secretary in Tirath's department, has already written to the department of economic affairs, part of the finance ministry, seeking control of the fund. The response is awaited.
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Chidambaram had said while announcing the fund that the women and child development ministry, along with other ministries concerned &quot;will be requested to work out the details of the structure, scope and application of the fund&quot;. Funds from the corpus are yet to be released.
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But Tirath is ready with her plan. In the letter she plans to send the Prime Minister next week, she has suggested a &quot;one stop crisis centre&quot; to provide medical and legal support to victims of rape and sexual assault and to pay compensation, ministry sources said. 
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