Telangana minorities ‘cheated’

Hyderabad: The Minorities Finance Corporation is yet to clear loan applications submitted in 2015. The corporation has disbursed only Rs 69 crore as subsidy since 2015-16 against Rs 2659.95 crore under bank linked-subsidy scheme. No fresh applications were sought in the last five years.

The minorities welfare department had issued a government order, GO RT. No. 230, on December 30, 2015, which contained gui-delines for implementation of the Self Empl-oyment/Economic Sup-port Scheme and fixed 80 per cent subsidy for unit cost up to Rs 1 lakh under category I, 70 per cent subsidy for unit cost between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh under category II and 60 per cent subsidy not exceeding Rs 5 lakh for unit cost between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 10 lakh under category III.

Based on the scheme, the Telangana Rs State Minorities Finance Corporation had sought applications from unemployed youths from minority communities and received 31,030 applications under category I amounting to subsidy cost of Rs 235.55 crore, 79,401 applications (subsidy amount Rs 1,106.40 crore) under category II and 1,53,908 applications (subsidy amount Rs 1,318 crore) under category III.

To clear all the applications, the corporation required Rs 2,659.95 crore, but only Rs 69.84 crore has been released since 2015. The corporation disbursed 409 Maruti Swift cars in 2018-19 under the Driver Empowerment Scheme. The subsidy component was Rs 18.17 crore.

Though the state government has earmarked sufficient money for schemes of the Minorities Finance Corporation, the documents show that it released a meagre amount, resulting in the corporation failing to clear the applications even after five years.

According to the available records, the government allocated Rs 82.40 crore under a bank linked subsidy programme in 2014-15, but released Rs 27.70 crore. It released Rs 43.70 crore against an allocation of Rs 87.40 crore in 2015-16, Rs 69 crore against allocation of Rs 136.50 crore in 2016-17, Rs 41.40 crore against Rs 136.50 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 22.50 crore against Rs 144 crore in 2018-19.

The finance department cancelled Rs 424 crore worth of cheques on February 31, 2016, and Rs 25.88 crore worth of cheques on March 31, 2018. Thus the government has cumulatively released only Rs 204.30 crore against the budgetary allocation of Rs 586.80 crore in five years.

Officials of the corporation clarified that it had not received the allocated amount during the last five years. The amount released under the bank linked subsidy scheme was diverted to other schemes resulting in the non-clearance of loan applications. Without clearing or cancelling the applications received in the year 2015, fresh applications can’t be sought, the officials clarified.