Telangana government conspires to deprive poor students of higher education: Shabbir Ali

Hyderabad: Former Minister and former Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Tuesday accused TRS government of hatching a "deep conspiracy" to deprive students belonging to Dalit, Tribal, Backward Classes and Minorities communities of higher education.

Shabbir Ali, in a statement here, alleged that the TRS government had reduced budget for schemes that helped the poor belonging to the SC, ST, BC and Minorities pursue higher education.

Quoting officials figures from the State Budget 2020-21, Shabbir Ali pointed out that the allocations under certain heads of SC, ST, BC and Minorities Welfare were deliberately reduced to target the poor students.

Under SC Welfare, allocations were slashed by Rs 490.91 crore for various schemes as the allocation was Rs 890.61 crore in 2019-20 which was Rs 400 crore in 2020-21.

Similarly, under Tribal Welfare, as against Rs 484.8 crore allocated in 2019-20, only Rs 384.80 crore were allocated in 2020-21, he said. Likewise, under BC Welfare, allocations were reduced by Rs 360.13 crore for various schemes.

The Congress leader pointed out that an amount of Rs 318.95 crore was reduced under Minorities Welfare. As against Rs 803.82 crore allocated in 2019-20, only Rs 484.87 crore were earmarked in 2020-21.

Overall, as against Rs 3,642.07 crore allocated for various education-related schemes for SC, ST, BC and Minority students in 2019-20, only Rs 2,372.38 crore had been allocated for 2020-21.