HYDERABAD: Will the state government’s ambitious Dalit Bandhu scheme pay dividends for the TRS in the October 30 Huzurabad by-election or backfire in its face?
While it remains to be seen how effective the scheme will impact voters’ preferences in exercising their franchise, the opposition parties alleged that Dalit Bandhu was introduced by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao primarily to woo Dalit voters in the assembly constituency. The segment has around 45,000 Dalits who form part of the total electorate of around two lakhs.
Initially, KCR had planned to implement the scheme only in Huzurabad. Later, he sprang a surprise by unveiling it in his adopted village of Vasalamarri in Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district. Around 76 families were extended the benefit. Following innumerable requests from MLAs, the government decided to take up the scheme on a pilot basis in four mandals in SC reserved constituencies in four corners of the state.
After choosing to roll out the scheme in Huzurabad constituency as a pilot project, the CM announced that the scheme would cover about 400 families in Huzurabad. About Rs 2,000 crore had already been released by the government for the scheme. When apprehensions grew amid opposition parties’ allegations that it would be extended to only a few select beneficiaries, KCR declared that every Dalit family in the state would be given the benefit of Rs 10 lakh each. Government employees, both in service and retired, would also be brought under its ambit, he stressed.
RS Praveen Kumar, state co-ordinator of BSP, asked:“ If the government is truly worried about Dalits and their welfare, why hasn’t it launched in the last seven years. Why were the landless Dalit poor not given three acres of land as promised by KCR till now,” he wondered.
