Minorities low budget utilisation in TS spurs demand for sub-plan

Hyderabad: With low budget utilisation each year and mostly availed for popular schemes, demand for the Minority sub-plan from the Muslim community has intensified.

The spending was 44 per cent for the year 2015-16 and only 41 per cent for the financial year 2019-20, which are incidentally the first year budget, post Assembly polls. The budget utilisationstands lowest in the immediate year after elections, as the ruling party starts its tenure. Mostly it is spent on schemes with no long-term benefit for the Minorities.

The maximum budget utilisation was in 2017-18 and 2021-22, which was just above 80 per cent. “The implementation of schemes directly impacting lives of the poor Minorities is tardy. While a closure look at scheme wise utilisation reveals that higher budget utilisation is due to implementation of populist schemes,” feels S Q Masood, co-founder of ASEEM (Association for Socio-Economic Empowerment of the Marginalised).

Masood, who obtained the data through RTI after years of struggle, has pointed out how schemes promoting education and reimbursement of tuition fees and schemes promoting livelihood development took a backseat. The bank-linked subsidy scheme was the worst performer. The budget allocations dropped from an average of Rs 100 crore and Rs 150 crore to Rs 28 crore in the past three years. Total allocations from 2014-15 to 2022-23 was Rs 817.49 crore but the spending was Rs 274.58 crore.

Schemes promoting education and reimbursement of tuition fees were the worst performers. During 2017-18 and 2015-16 only Rs 0.98 crore and Rs 0.17 crore were spent, when the budget was Rs 180 crore and Rs 425 crore respectively.

“Utilisation has improved during the last 3-4 years, however several complaints from students regarding tuition fees being not released by the government colleges are reported,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the SC,ST,BC, Muslim Front which held a round table conference on November 4 appealed to the people of Telangana to cast their vote on November 30 keeping in mind their consciousness, intelligence and future.

“The promises made by BRS have not been fulfilled, including the much hyped 12 per cent reservation for Muslims. The BRS government also promised to empower Muslims, but this does not reflect in the issuing of tickets.

There was massive loot of Waqf properties during BRS’s tenure and the promise of protecting these precious properties worth thousands of crores was not fulfilled. The mistrust of Muslims is increasing,” said MohdSanaullah Khan, the front’s chairman.