Congress Slams BRS Government For "Deceptive" Minorities Bandhu Scheme

Senior Congress leader and TPCC Political Affairs Committee (PAC) Convener Mohammed Ali Shabbir today criticized the BRS government's proposed "Minorities Bandhu" scheme, calling it a farce and an attempt to deceive the poor jobless youth belonging to the minority communities.

Shabbir Ali said that the BRS government had done nothing for the jobless youth of the minority communities in Telangana. He pointed out that in 2015-16, more than 1.53 lakh jobless youth had applied for loans when the Telangana State Minorities Finance Corporation had called for applications. However, their applications were discarded and no applications were even sought for the next seven years, he said.

Recently, when the TSMFC invited fresh applications, again more than 2.2 lakh jobless youth had applied. However, those applications too remained unprocessed, Shabbir Ali said.

He said that CM K Chandrashekar Rao had deceived the minorities using delay tactics.

"First, a meagre amount of Rs 50 crore was allocated, and when Congress protested, another Rs 70 crore was added to that. However, even this amount was not enough to benefit all the jobless youth who had applied for loans. To cover up this failure, CM KCR came up with this fresh idea of a Minority Bandhu scheme to provide Rs 1 Lakh financial assistance to the minority communities with a 100 per cent subsidy," Shabbir Ali alleged.

The Congress leader ridiculed KCR's claims of his government spending on the welfare of the minorities. "In the decade from 2004 to 2014 under the Congress government in united AP, there was an impressive growth in the allocation for minority welfare. The total budget grew approximately 3.15 times during this period, from Rs 51,142 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 1,61,348 crore in 2013-14. However, the allocation for minorities' welfare saw an even more significant surge, increasing by 26.33 times - from Rs 39.03 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 1,027 crore in 2013-14. There was also a noticeable year-on-year increase in the budget allocation, which peaked at a substantial 110.02% growth in 2013-14. That is the concern that the Congress has for the minorities. Compare that to what the BRS has done," the former minister said, and asked the people, especially the minorities, to be cautious with the "false promises and fake claims" of the BRS government.