Amidst criticism that the much-publicised Dalit Bandhu scheme was launched as a pilot project in Huzurabad assembly constituency only with an eye on gaining political mileage in the upcoming by-election, Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao came up with a new plan to rebut the criticism.
On Wednesday, the KCR government announced that the scheme would be implemented the Dalit Bandhu scheme in four more mandals in four other assembly constituencies reserved for Scheduled Castes.
The scheme was already taken up on experimental basis in Vasalamarri village of Yadadri-Bhongir district, where 76 Dalit families were given Rs 10 lakh each under Dalit Bandhu scheme, but the biggest launch was in Huzurabad assembly constituency where Rs 2,000 crore was released for extending benefits to around 20,000 Dalit families.
According to an official release, the Telangana government has taken up Dalit Bandhu scheme as a movement and the pilot project was launched in Huzurabad.
It said KCR has decided to understand and comprehend in detail and in depth the sentiments, needs of the Dalits and also the intricacies of the scheme.
As part of this, in addition to Huzurabad, the chief minister has decided to select four mandals in four SC-reserved assembly constituencies, which are represented by the Dalit MLAs in the north, east, west and southern part of the state for implementation of Dalit Bandhu scheme for all the Dalit beneficiaries.
The selected mandals are: Chintakani mandal in Madhira assembly constituency of Khammam district, Tirmalgiri mandal in Tungaturthy assembly constituency of Suryapet district, Charagonda mandal in Achampet assembly constituency of Nagar Kurnool district and Nizamsagar mandal in Jukkal assembly constituency of Kamareddy district.
The official note said the Dalit Bandhu scheme will be implemented for all the Dalit families in these mandals.
After his three-day tour to New Delhi, the chief minister would convene a review meeting in Hyderabad with ministers, MLAs, district collectors from these concerned areas.
“Decisions will be taken at the proposed meeting over the modalities of implementation of the Dalit Bandhu scheme in these four mandals,” the note said.