Hyderabad: The Sachar Committee report revealed the distressing condition of the Muslim community, worse off than Dalits. While the state government is providing Rs 10 lakh per family to uplift Dalits from poverty and backwardness, the Muslim community is found to be living in even more challenging circumstances than Dalits. Surprisingly, the Telangana government has only allocated Rs 1 lakh to about 10,000 Muslim families, sparking criticism and disappointment among the community.
The decision to allocate Rs 10 lakh per family to Dalits to address their backwardness was met with praises and adoration for Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao. State ministers and Muslim leaders even went as far as bathing KCR’s portrait with milk, considering him the most compassionate ally of the minority community.
However, the disparity between the treatment of Dalits and Muslims in Telangana has not goes well with the minority right activists. An activist Miskeen Ahmed said that the government has selected 100 Dalit families from each assembly constituency to receive Rs 10 lakh, benefiting a total of 11,900 families across the 119 assembly constituencies in the state. In contrast, the one lakh rupee scheme for Muslim families has seen only a few thousand applications being considered, leaving numerous others deprived of the benefits.
He said, to address this apparent injustice, it is crucial for the government to extend the facility to all Muslim families of Telangana state by accepting fresh applications. This will enable those who have been left out of the current scheme to avail the benefits rightfully.
The Telangana government’s initiative for the backward classes, offering a continuous scheme of one lakh rupees with an emphasis on timely resolution, has been commendable. However, a lack of clarity in the GO issued by the Minority Welfare Department regarding the one lakh scheme for Muslims raises concerns and calls for appropriate steps to be taken.
Critics view the difference in the allocation of funds between Dalits and Muslims as a joke on the latter, reflecting poorly on Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s commitment to implement the recommendations of the Sachar Committee. Despite his previous promises to uplift the Muslim community and implement the Committee’s recommendations, it appears that those pledges have been forgotten, leaving the Muslim population without the support they deserve.
