Hyderabad: The Chief Minister of Telangana State, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, on Monday urged the pilgrims leaving for Haj, to pray to Allah for peace and prosperity of the new state. The Chief Minister was giving a send-off to the second batch of the Haj pilgrims of Telangana, by flagging off the buses carrying the pilgrims at the Haj House, at Nampally, in the city.
Addressing the pilgrims and their family members, the Chief Minister said his government was striving hard for the welfare and development of people irrespective of caste, creed and religion. Maintaining that the minorities were neglected in the budgetary allocations by the erstwhile governments in the combined state, he said that his government had decided to allocate Rs 1,000 crores in the ensuing budget for the welfare of minorities in Telangana.
He said that he had gone there to bid farewell to the guests of Allah as it is said that during Ramzan, people who feed a fasting person receives the same reward as the man tasting, and the person who come sto bid farewell to the pilgrims, also gets his reward. Mr Rao said that Rs 51,000 would be sanctioned for marriage of each poor Muslim girl and this amount would be directly credited in the name of the bride.
He said earlier this benefit was extended by providing selected household articles to the bride, but the government noticed that there were certain irregularities that had taken place in purchase of articles and in order to set right these irregularities, have decided to provide monetary benefits instead.
The Chief Minister announced building fee exemption to the complex being constructed by the Wakf Board, adjacent to the Haj House in Nampally. Mahmood Ali, Deputy Chief Minister, Nayani Narasimha Reddy, home Minister and others also participated in the programme.
