Hyderabad: Minorities are upset over an insufficient increase in budgetary allocation for the welfare of the community. Compared to the last year’s allocation, the state government has increased its proposed expenditure for minorities by only Rs 4 crores.
Community leaders complain that the major chunk of the allocations meant for minorities are on non-productive heads.
About 70 per cent of the Budget is allocated for education and allied activities while financial development of the minorities has been ignored continuously.
Dr Amir Ullah Khan, senior policy advisor with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said that though the budgetary allocation for minorities is satisfactory, the community hopes that there would be a 10-15 per cent increase and the government will introduce new schemes.
He said that the two major problems of minorities are housing and credit, both issues neglected continuously. If we compare allocations for minorities with that for other communities, the share of the minorities is inadequate. The allocation for minorities is a mere 1.1 per cent of the total Budget. If we compare allocations for minorities in Telangana with the neighboring state of Karn-ataka, it is very meager.
Dr Amir said there are bleak chances of 12 per cent reservations for Muslims in Telangana. In these circumstances, the government should establish an Equal Opportunity Commission, which will enable minorities to get their due share in all general schemes and programmes.
He hoped that while revie-wing the Budget in the future, government will provide at least 20 per cent share in housing schemes to minorities and enhance budgetary allocations for subsidy to the Minority Finance Corporation.
He advised the community to take benefits from other schemes like unemployment allowance and Aasra schemes.
Mr Arshad Hussain said the chances of getting government jobs are very low, so minorities depend on self employment. He said government should equally focus on financial activities along with educational development. He said that if you focus on education, the fruits will appear after a decade, while if you focus on financial development, immediate changes will emerge. He said due to delay in releasing the Budget, departments are not able to spend it before the closure of the fiscal.
