Hyderabad: There is a possibility of increasing the budget for the welfare of minorities in the state budget for the financial year 2023-24. 2400 crore proposals were presented by the Minority Welfare Department, but Finance Minister Harish Rao confirmed the increase in the budget.
The Minority Welfare Department has submitted a report to the government regarding the performance of the Minority Welfare Department and budget spent in the last four years, in which it is claimed that a total budget of 6189.31 crores has been allocated for minority welfare from 2019-20 to 2022-23. While a total of 6219.407 crores was released by allocating additional budget. 4624.59 crore was spent on minority welfare schemes in the last 4 years.
However, there is a difference of about 2000 crores between the release and expenditure of the budget. 1536 crore was released in 2019-20 while the expenditure was 1270 crore. In 2020-21, 1093 crores were spent out of 1522 crores. 1646 crores were released in 2021-22 of which 1286 crores have been spent on schemes. In the current financial year 2022-23, 973.55 crores have been spent so far out of 1513 crores issued. Compared to the last three years, the budget expenditure has decreased this year. Officials say that the budget execution figures are in accordance with the orders issued by the Finance Department.
Under the Post Matric Scholarship and Pre-matric scholarships funds have been released to 3,48,281 applicants in the last four years spending 205.92 crore. Under Fee Reimbursement Scheme 2,46,949 applications have been approved and the amount released is 642.49 crores in four years. Under Overseas Scholarship Scheme 395.87 crores have been disbursed to a total of 2498 candidates since the inception of the scheme. 100 crores have been allocated during 2022-23 while 75 crores have been released. Later, the Finance Department released another 41.16 crores.
According to the Minority Welfare Department, funds have been released to 2597 Muslim, 350 Christian, 8 Sikh and 19 Jain candidates under the Overseas Scholarship Scheme. 1135.97 Crore has been disbursed to 114464 applicants under Shaadi Mubarak Scheme. 190 crores have been released for Shadi Mubarak scheme till December 15, 2022-23 and the number of applications is 19012.
Telangana Residential School Society has been allocated a budget of 2456.28 crores in the last four years while the expenditure has been 2275.59 crores. The society has spent a total of 1682.08 crores. 28.31 crores have been allocated to the Minority Finance Corporation under Economic Support Scheme and 3.41 crores for Training and Employment Programme.
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