Christian Leaders Voice Concerns Over Unaddressed Issues, Telangana Assembly Session

Hyderabad: Christian leaders in the city voiced their displeasure over issues relating to the community not being raised and discussed in the recently concluded Monsoon Session of the Assembly.

Some of the issues that they had hoped would be brought up in the Assembly included pending requests for church construction permissions, sanctioning of monthly remuneration to pastors, marriage licence to eligible pastors, nominated posts for Christians, and Budget allocation to Christians, among others.

"Imams and pujaris have been receiving Rs 5,000 per month for five years now and the amount has been hiked. No such allocation has ever been made for pastors,”  said G. Solomon Raj, general secretary of the Telangana United Christians and Pastors Association.

“Several files regarding marriage licences for pastors are pending at the minority office. The nominated posts for Christians still remain vacant. It's disheartening to see such disregard for minorities in a progressive state like Telangana,” said Solomon Rah. “We feel ignored and forgotten."

"The Rs 1 lakh loan has been sanctioned only to 2,400 Christian people, while over 2.5 lakh Muslims have benefited. The Christian population stands at 1.23 core (according to the TUCPA census), but the budget allocation is zero, while the Muslim population of about 50 lakh enjoys a Budget of Rs 220 crore. All we ask for is the government's attention and keeping its own promises. We have been sidelined for a long time now," said Sravan Manuel.

Speaking to DC, pastor D Prabhudass from Chinna Aamedalapalle in Mahbubnagar's Monopad mandal said that he had applied for Rs 1.5 lakh grant-in-aid for the construction of his church, Bethel Prayer House, in 2015. There has been no movement on the application. "My application was forwarded to the TS Christian Minorities Finance Corporation (TSCMFC) in 2015. I have been travelling between the Christian minority office and my village for eight years and have spent more than Rs 45,000 on travel, but in vain," pastor Prabhudass said.

One of the delegation members said that when it came to grant-in-aid amount, crores of rupees had been sanctioned to the churches in Dharmapuri constituency which minority welfare minister Koppula Eshwar  represents.

"The foundation stone for the Christian Bhavan was laid in Dec 2022 by ministers Koppula Eshwar, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Mahmood Ali and Malla Reddy in the presence of other MLAs, MLCs but no work on that front yet. Land of 2 acres was sanctioned at Uppal Baghayath, while the construction costs 10 crores, only Rs 1.5 crore has been released and so work hasn't started yet," pointed another leader.