Hyderabad: Alleging a huge scam in the Dalit Bandhu scheme, Congress MP and former Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Tuesday demanded a high-level probe.
Speaking to media persons in Kodad, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Dalit Bandhu scheme has been turned into a money-minting machine for the TRS leaders who are collecting huge bribes and commissions. He said many Dalit families were being forced to pay Rs 2 Lakh to even Rs 5 lakh for their selection as a beneficiary of the scheme.
As part of the Rachabanda/ Rythu Bharosa Yatra launched by the Congress party to publicise the Warangal Declaration on farmers unveiled by AICC leader Rahul Gandhi on May 6, Uttam Kumar Reddy has so far covered 171 villages and two municipalities in 24 days.
He said the Dalit families in most of the villages have complained to him that local TRS leaders were forcing them to pay huge commissions for their selection as the beneficiary of the Dalit Bandhu scheme and disbursement of funds.
“More than poor Dalits, the scheme is proving to be an income scheme for TRS leaders,” he alleged.
Further, he said corruption in the Dalit Bandhu scheme was rampant in the Huzurnagar and Kodad constituencies of Nalgonda Lok Constituencies. He said that the TRS leaders have laid a pre-condition that only the Dalit families who join the TRS party would be selected as beneficiaries.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the TRS Govt has become habitual in cheating the Dalits of Telangana. “In 2014 elections, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao cheated the SCs on the promise of making a Dalit CM. They were also cheated on the promise of three acres of land, double-bedroom houses and a job for each family. Similarly, he said that lakhs of families are now being deceived by the TRS Govt on the promise of giving Rs. 10 lakh towards the Dalit Bandhu scheme,” he said.
The Congress MP said that the state government should extend Dalit Bandhu benefits to all 17 lakh Dalit families across Telangana. However, he said if the state government wishes to provide the benefits in a phased manner, then it should execute the tasks with complete transparency. He said there was no mechanism in place to check the process of selection of beneficiaries and disbursement of Rs. 10 lakh per Dalit family.
Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that the local TRS MLAs have been misusing the Dalit Bandhu scheme for personal gains by picking up only TRS leaders as beneficiaries. Consequently, he said that the benefits of Dalit Bandhu were not reaching the genuine and deserving beneficiaries. He also alleged that the TRS leaders took huger commissions from 20-50% from the beneficiaries to disburse the amount.
The Congress leader demanded that the State Govt release a white paper on the status of the implementation of the Dalit Bandhu scheme while explaining the criteria adopted for the selection of beneficiaries.
