Hyderabad: The Government of Telangana for the first time in the last 8 years announced a bank-linked loan scheme for minorities and they hoped that the government would take a generous stance in announcing the scheme. However, after the announcement of the scheme by the Minority Finance Corporation, the minorities were left disappointed.
The scheme that the government has prepared for subsidy-linked loans is largely seen as a joke with minorities. The government looks more interested in the welfare of the Dalits than the minorities. For Dalits, apart from the existing welfare schemes, a new scheme called Dalit Bandhu has been announced under which aid of Rs 10 lakh is being provided to every deserving Dalit family.
The government has decided to select 500 Dalit families in each assembly constituency this year. This scheme was introduced at the time of the Huzurabad by-election and twenty thousand beneficiaries have been selected in just one assembly constituency. This year, 500 Dalit families in each assembly constituency have been included in the scope of the scheme.
On the other hand, if you look at the minority’s subsidy loan scheme, it will be understood that this scheme is just like a straw in a camel’s mouth. It was decided to issue Rs.1 million per person to twenty thousand Dalit families, while subsidy loans will be provided to only five thousand youths among 45 lakh minorities of Telangana.
The number of minority candidates for subsidy loans in the district is not more than three hundred. Rs.50 crores allocated by the government to provide subsidized loans to only five thousand people for the entire state, while the Dalits will get Rs.5900 crores.
The government has fixed the quota of subsidized loans in each district based on the minority population. The population of minorities in Hyderabad is 17,47,608 according to the official data and 2001 census and only 1919 applications will be accepted in Hyderabad. Other districts of Telangana where the number of beneficiaries is more than 300 include Rangareddy (320) and Nizamabad (324), while Sangareddy (273), Nirmal (116), Medchal (257), Mahboobnagar (121), Kamareddy (109) and Adilabad (111).
The government should allocate at least 500 crores for minorities like the Dalit Bandhu scheme and issue subsidy-based loans to at least 20,000 unemployed minority youth across the state. The attitude of the government shows that the importance of Dalits is because of their political consciousness, while the minorities are deprived of political consciousness and no struggle has been made by the minorities to solve the problems in the last 8 years.
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