The State Government has released another ₹500 crore for implementation of the Dalit Bandhu scheme on a pilot basis in the Huzurabad constituency.
The State Scheduled Caste Corporation has credited the amount to the account of Karimnagar district collector following the instructions of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. With this, the total amount credited for the pilot project reached ₹2,000 crore. Dalit Bandhu envisages extension of financial assistance of ₹10 lakh each to eligible Dalit members aspiring to start their own ventures without bank linkages.
The government had earlier released ₹1,500 crore in four tranches. Implementation of the scheme, a brainchild of the Chief Minister, comes as part of efforts to promote entrepreneurship among the Dalits and the government ensured that there would not be any bank linkages, thus freeing the beneficiaries from the scope of harassment by banks for repayment of the amounts released to them.
Incidentally, Huzurabad, which is set to go for a by-election following the resignation of former Minister and sitting MLA Eatala Rajender, has been selected for the pilot project. The constituency has close to 21,000 Dalit families and thus, covering all the families would entail an expenditure of ₹2,000 crore to the government.
The Chief Minister, during his recent public meeting in the constituency, assured that all the eligible families would be covered under the scheme without leaving a single beneficiary. The government had commissioned field survey for identification of the beneficiaries so that the scheme could cover all the eligible beneficiaries without giving scope for any leftovers.
The Chief Minister had simultaneously released ₹7.6 crore to Vasalamarri, the village he adopted in Yadadri-Bhongir district, where 76 beneficiaries had been identified. Efforts had been intensified for distribution of the assured amounts to the beneficiaries in the village.
