Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Sunday named the government's recently announced Dalit Empowerment Scheme as Telangana Dalita Bandhu, on the lines of Rythu Bandhu for farmers, and selected the Huzurabad Assembly constituency, that is set to go for a bypoll, to launch it on a pilot basis. About 21,000 families will benefit from the scheme in the Huzurabad constituency.
Under the scheme, the government will credit Rs 10 lakh directly in the bank accounts of each Dalit beneficiaries. Each Dalit family will be taken as a unit to extend the benefit.
The decision was taken at a meeting that the Chief Minister held with officials at Pragathi Bhavan on the implementation of the Dalita Bandhu scheme.
Explaining the reasons for launching the scheme in Huzurabad, the CM said that Karimnagar district held great sentimental value for him as he had addressed the first public meeting, ‘Simhagarjana’ in Karimnagar soon after the launch of the TRS in 2001 to demand statehood for Telangana.
He also launched the ‘Rythu Bima' farmers insurance scheme, which is close to his heart, from the same district, Chandrashekar Rao recalled.
The “revolutionary” Rythu Bandhu scheme was launched from Huzurabad in 2018 and he wanted to continue the trend by launching Dalita Bandhu from Huzurabad, he said.
The CM stated that he will soon announce the launch date of Dalita Bandhu in Huzurabad.
It was decided to select 20,929 Dalit families in Huzurabad constituency for this scheme. Of this, 5,323 will be from Huzurabad mandal, 4,346 from Kamalapur mandal, 3,678 from Veenavanka mandal, 4,996 from Jammikunta mandal and 2,586 from Illanthakuntal mandal.
The CM said that the scheme will be implemented with an outlay of Rs 1,200 crore across the state as announced earlier. Since the Huzurabad constituency is being covered on a pilot basis, the CM decided to santion an additional Rs 2,000 crore for this scheme.
The CM stated that the guidelines for the implementation of the scheme and how beneficiaries should utilise the Rs 10 lakh will be released soon.
Chandrashekar Rao said this pilot project will help government to assess the implementation of Dalita Bandhu at the ground-level, which will be helpful in extending the scheme to the state later.
A workshop will be held for collectors and officials on the implementation of the scheme.
"Besides extending Rs 10 lakh financial assistance to each Dalit family, a special safety fund will be set up with the partnership of government and the beneficiary. If the beneficiary faces any financial or other problems later, the government will extend additional financial assistance from this safety,” the CM said.
"The aim of this scheme is to take Dalit families to higher levels socially and financially. If any Dalit family encounters any trouble later after utilising this scheme and suffers financial losses for any reason, this safety fund will come to their rescue," the CM stated.
The CM hoped that like Rythu Bandhu, which transformed the lives of farmers and agriculture, the Dalita Bandhu scheme would turn out to be big success and transform the lives of Dalit families.
