The Telangana government on Monday released Rs 500 crore for the implementation of the state’s flagship program ‘Telangana Dalit Bandhu’, meant for empowerment and uplift of Dalits in Huzurabad as a pilot project.
A government order to this effect was released by the Telangana SC Welfare Department and the amount was immediately credited to the account of Karimnagar district collector towards the implementation of scheme in the Huzurabad assembly constituency on a pilot basis, as approved by the state cabinet.
Telangana Dalit Bandhu is done via a one-time direct cash transfer of Rs 10 lakh to each family of that community, the biggest ever direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme in the country.
However, it is not clear whether the amount released on Monday was only a first instalment or a once-and-for-all allotment for Huzurabad. For, the amount of Rs 500 crore is hardly sufficient for 500 eligible Dalit families in Huzurabad.
According to the official figures, there are 20,929 Dalit families in the entire Huzurabad assembly constituency eligible for Dalit Bandhu scheme, including 5,323 families in Huzurabad mandal, 4,346 families in Kamalapur mandal, 3,678 in Veenavanka mandal, 4,996 families in Jammikunta mandal and 2,586 families in Illanthakunta mandal.
As such, the government would have to release Rs 2,093 crore for Huzurabad constituency to implement Dalit Bandhu scheme. But the government released only Rs 500 crore on Monday, giving rise to the impression that the scheme would be implemented only as a token measure.
Earlier, at an all-party meet in June, the chief minister announced that 100 families from each of the 119 assembly constituencies in the state would receive Rs 10 lakh each to the eligible 11,900 people. This would be under Rs 1200 crore, as allotted in the state budget.
But later, the government extended the scheme to all the Dalit families in the state and KCR even announced that he would not hesitate to spend Rs 80,000 crore to Rs 1 lakh crore on the scheme to uplift the Dalits.
By seeing the release of only Rs 500 crore for Huzurabad, one would get the impression that the scheme cannot be implemented fully in the near future.