Panel to submit report in 2 days

Committee members Eatala Rajender and Jogu Ramanna complete discussions and are ready with the final report to be submitted to the CMO

Hyderabad: The Ministers’ Committee on Backward Classes Welfare, which has been working on the details being sought by the Chief Minister’s Office, will submit its report to the Chief Minister within two days.

Members of the committee, Finance Minister E Rajender and BC Welfare Minister J Ramanna, have completed the discussions with the stakeholders and officials and compiled the report. Though the committee wanted to submit the report to the Chief Minister last week itself, the CMO sought some more details.

Sources in the government informed that the committee would finalise the report in two days and would submit it to the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister is likely to hold one more round of meeting with the members of the committee and public representatives of the BC community, before giving his consent for the implementation of the report.

The Chief Minister appointed the committee of Ministers to examine the issues of the backward classes in the State. He wanted the committee to make recommendations for steps to be taken to improve the lives of the BC community people. The Chief Minister wanted specific recommendations on the Most Backward Communities.

The committee of Ministers held a meeting with the MPs, MLAs and MLCs hailing from the BC community last month. It discussed various issues for three days. Recently, it held a meeting with the officials of the Welfare Department and came up with certain recommendations. E Rajender said the Chief Minister took particular interest on BCs who formed majority of the State’s population. The Minister said the committee had discussed the issues of the BCs from the perspective of their political representation, education, presence in private sector and employment.

Rajender said public representatives had recommended opening of about 62 new degree residential women’s colleges in the State to encourage the BC women in pursuing higher education. They suggested starting of a coaching centre for the students who wanted to appear for Group-1 and Civil Services examinations. 

The asset creating sub communities of the BCs like dairy farmers and fishermen should be supported financially. The sub castes who are engaged in service sectors like barber’s saloon and others should be provided with loans.  

A corporation should be formed for the nomad sections of the BCs. These were some of the observations of the committee, he said.

The Finance Minister said the recommendations included establishment of BC Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BICCI) on the lines of Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI).

Rajender said the government would consider this calendar year as Welfare Year and would ensure issuing of loans directly without linking them to the banks to the BCs and other downtrodden communities. He said that first the funds would be granted for the welfare of the nomad tribes of the BCs and next to communities like washer men, barbers and blacksmiths.