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Telangana CM announces ₹1,000 crore scheme for Dalit empowerment
The “CM Dalit Empowerment Scheme” would be rolled out in the forthcoming budget.
Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday announced the launch of an exclusive scheme for the uplift of Dalits in the state with a budgetary allocation of ₹1,000 crore.
Addressing a huge rally at Halia town in Nalgonda district, KCR said the “CM Dalit Empowerment Scheme” would be rolled out in the forthcoming budget.
“I will be directly monitoring the implementation of the scheme, under which various projects would be initiated for Dalits. Initially, we shall allocate ₹1,000 crore for the scheme in the coming budget and in the subsequent years, the allocation would be increased manifold,” said the CM.
He said though his government had been implementing a sub-plan for Scheduled Castes and taking up certain schemes, he was not totally satisfied with it. “That is why we are coming out with this new scheme,” he said.
Though the public meeting was organised as part of the chief minister’s visit to Nalgonda district to lay foundation stone for 13 various lift irrigation schemes on Krishna river at a cost of nearly ₹3,000 crore, he used the occasion to kickstart the campaign of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi for the ensuing by-election to Nagarjunasagar assembly seat.
The by-election, necessitated due to the death of sitting TRS legislator Nomula Narasimhaiah due to post-Covid-19 complications in December, has become a matter of prestige for the TRS, which faced a debacle in the by-elections to Dubbak assembly seat, followed by Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections.
The TRS chief called upon the people of Nagarjunasagar constituency not to get carried away by the propaganda of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party but support the party which had been addressing the needs of every section of the society.
“If you think what I am saying is true, see that the opposition parties lose their deposits,” he said.
The chief minister pointed out that it was the TRS government which had driven away fluorosis from the villages of Nalgonda by providing safe drinking water through Mission Bhagiratha scheme. “The Congress governments in the past had never thought of implementing a scheme like Rythu Bandhu that provides ₹10,000 per acre per year to each farmer. Yet, the Congress leaders are shamelessly criticising the TRS government,” he said.
The TRS chief also promised to complete all the lift irrigation schemes within a year. “If we can’t fulfil our promise, we won’t ask for votes from you in the next elections. We have that credibility of not going back on what we promised in the past,” he said.
He also warned the opposition parties against creating hurdles in the meetings of the TRS. “The Congress and the BJP, which were responsible for the suicides of farmers in the past, have no moral right to disturb our meetings. Ours is a democratically elected people’s government, not the one nominated by Delhi,” he said.
