Even as Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is confident of winning the support of Scheduled Castes by launching the Dalit Bandhu scheme, the Congress party has come out with a new weapon to win the confidence of the Backward Classes.
As if to neutralize the impact of the Dalit Bandhu scheme, Telangana Congress Legislature Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Wednesday came up with the demand to launch a similar scheme for the Backward Classes in the state.
“What about launching a BC Bandhu scheme for the welfare of the backward classes? They have been struggling due to lack of proper support from the government,” Vikramarka said in a letter to the chief minister.
Releasing the letter to the media at Maredugonda of Kalwasrirampur mandal on Wednesday, the CLP leader alleged that there was no change in the lives of weaker sections even after the formation of a separate Telangana state.
He said the community people had told him about their hardships while he was touring villages as part of his padayatra.
Vikramarka said that in the last eight years of BRS government rule, the BCs have not been getting the benefits of any welfare schemes and have been discriminated against. Several promises made for the BCs were never fulfilled, he said.
The CLP leader said that though the Telangana government had collected data on the BCs in the state through a comprehensive household survey, it was not announcing it and was depriving the BCs of their legitimate share in education and employment opportunities.
“Only 2.3 percent of budgetary allocations are being spent on the BC welfare since the formation of Telangana. The reservations for the BCs in the local bodies were reduced from 34 percent to 14 percent. Only three BCs were given the cabinet berths in Telangana,” he alleged.
Vikramarka demanded that the KCR government immediately start the BC Bandhu scheme on the lines of Dalit Bandhu, as promised by the chief minister in the state assembly.