The Congress party in its manifesto in the run-up to the 2023 Assembly election in the State promised several things for the development of minorities, while a very few have been implemented partly, many others remain incomplete, or as a report’s title says are – broken promises.
Association for Socio-Economic Empowerment of the Marginalised (ASEEM), a Hyderabad-based NGO, analysed the government’s performance for one year and brought out the report.
Budget allocated for post-metric scholarship under Reimbursement of Tuition Fee (RTF) for 2024-25 was ₹300 crore, while the budget released was ₹225 crore, and till January – only about 14% or 41.86 crore was spent. Also, while over 1.21 lakh applications were received for RTF, no sanctions were made.
The Chief Minister’s Overseas Scholarship Scheme was allocated ₹130 crore, but ₹97.50 crore was released, of which about 59% was expended. Of the total 5,759 applications, 1,576 applications were sanctioned. Analysed data also pointed to increasing applications but also declining sanctions.
According to the report, the government announced a record budget of ₹3,000 crore, but budgetary allocation for bank-linked subsidy scheme was ₹300 crore, and till December 2024, about ₹3 crore was spent towards salaries. Most of the expenditure was for Telangana Minorities Residential Educational Institutions Society, salaries, contract, outsourcing, rents and taxes.
The implementation of Congress’ promises and several schemes has been nil so far, which include the Youth Commission to provide interest-free loans up to ₹10 lakh; subsidised loans to jobless minority youth and women with annual sanction of ₹1,000 crore; Abdul Kalam Taufa-e-Taleem Scheme; protection and allotment of land for Muslim and Christian graveyards; enhanced Shaadi Mubarak with ₹1.60 lakh; revitalisation of SETWIN and transformation of Quli Qutub Shah Urban Development Authority and; implementation of Sachar Committee recommendations.
Published – March 11, 2025 12:13 am IST