Shabbir Ali and Jeevan Reddy Slam BRS Govt for Deceptive Minorities Bandhu Scheme

HYDERABAD: TPCC political affairs committee (PAC) convener Mohammed Ali Shabbir and MLC T. Jeevan Reddy criticised 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 community.

Shabbir Ali, in a media statement on Monday, said that in 2015-16, more than 1.53 lakh jobless youth applied for loans when the TS Minorities Finance Corporation called for applications. The applications were discarded. Recently, when the TSMFC invited fresh applications, more than 2.2 lakh jobless youth applied. These too remained unprocessed.

Shabbir Ali said that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had deceived the minorities. First, a meagre amount of Rs 50 crore was allocated and when the Congress protested it was raised by Rs 70 crore was added. Against this backdrop, the Chief Minister was offering Rs 1 lakh financial assistance to the minority communities with 100 per cent subsidy. Shabbir Ali pointed out that the announcement was made with no clarity on the total amount to be disbursed and the deadline to complete the process.

Elsewhere, Jeevan Reddy said the Dalits had been cheated as the Rs 17,700 crores allocated in 2022-23 and 2023-24 were not spent for them. The Dalit Bandhu scheme was brought forward to sidetrack the issue. Similar is the case of ‘BC bandhu’ and the ‘minorities bandhu’. The BRS government should come out with a white paper on the amount allocated to the Dalits, he said.