Hyderabad: The Legislative Assembly on Friday approved the “Telangana State Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Special Development Fund (Planning, Allocation and Utilisation of Financial Resources) Bill, 2017” amidst protests from the Congress.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao termed the new Act “historic” and said that it coincides with Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary.
The new Act replaces the old SC, ST Sub-Plan Act made in 2013 by government in undivided AP.
The Congress demanded an amendment to existing Act instead of enacting a fresh one. It alleged that this was done to take away credit from the Congress which had passed the previous Act for the welfare of SCs and STs for the first time in the country.
However, the CM denied these allegations saying that the new Act had many ‘good things’ which the old Act lacked. “If the old Act has to be amended to bring it on par with the new Act, we need to make 109 amendments. Such is the difference between the old and new Acts,” he said.
