Shabbir slams BRS for deceptive ‘Minorities Bandhu’ scheme

Hyderabad: Congress senior leader and TPCC Political Affairs Committee (PAC) Convener Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Monday criticized the BRS Government’s proposed “Minorities Bandhu” scheme, calling it a “farce” and an attempt to deceive the poor jobless youth belonging to the minority community. In a statement here, Shabbir Ali said the BRS Govt has done nothing for the jobless youth of minority communities in Telangana. He pointed out that in 2015-16, more than 1.53 lakh jobless youth applied for loans when Telangana State Minorities Finance Corporation called for applications. However, their applications were discarded and no applications were even sought for the next seven years. Recently, when the TSMFC invited fresh applications, again more than 2.20 lakh jobless youth applied for it. However, these applications too remained unprocessed. He said that CM KCR deceived the minorities using delay tactics. First, a meagre amount of Rs. 50 crore was allocated and when Congress protested, another Rs. 70 crore was added. However, even this amount is not enough to benefit all the jobless youth who have applied for loans. To cover up this failure, CM KCR came up with a fresh idea of launching the “Minority Bandhu” scheme to provide Rs 1 Lakh financial assistance to the Minority communities with a 100 per cent subsidy, he alleged.

The Congress leader ridiculed CM KCR’s claims of spending on the welfare of minorities by his Govt. “Examining the decade from 2004 to 2014 under the Congress Govt, we notice an impressive growth in the allocation for minority welfare. The total budget grew approximately 3.15 times during this period, from Rs. 51,142 crores in 2004-05 to Rs. 1,61,348 crores in 2013-14. However, the allocation for minorities’ welfare saw an even more significant surge, increasing by 26.33 times, from Rs. 39.03 crores in 2004-05 to Rs. 1,027 crores in 2013-14.