Only 43 per cent of allocations for minorities spent

Hyderabad: About Rs 186.87 crore was spent in the last five years for iftar parties and Christmas celebrations in the state while the allocated budget was only Rs 174.37 crore in the last five years.

Likewise, on the Shadi Mubarak scheme, the cumulative expenditure was Rs 783.34 crore against the budgetary allocation of Rs 705 crores. The total budget of Rs 7,576.70 crore from 2014-15 to 2019-20 has shown an expenditure of only Rs 3,274.09 crore which is (43%). The money is to be utilised in Shadi Mubarak, scholarships, minority residential schools and other schemes.

The state government has allocated Rs 704.25 crore in these years on bank link subsidy for employment generation but spent only Rs 190.39 crore (26%).  The state government announced a special economic zone for entrepreneurs belonging to the minority communities in 2017 and since the 2017-18 Budget, it allocated Rs 62.50 crore for establishment of T-Prime and T-SEZ for minorities and single rupee was not released. The government did not even identify land for the T-SEZ so far.

Vast fluctuations are visible in allocations and expenditures for fee reimbursement and maintenance charges for minority students during five years.

The government allocated Rs 1,560 crore for fee reimbursement (RTF) and spent only Rs983.99 crore (63%) while the expenditure on maintenance charges or mess charges (MTF) was `244.74 crore against the budgetary allocation of Rs 420 crores (58%). Likewise, the government has allocated Rs 255 crore as the state share in the Central government’s Pre-Matric Scholarship scheme, but spent only `23 crore since 2014.

On residential Schools, it allocated Rs2,006.74 crore and spent only Rs1,045.99 crore (52%).  

The government has allocated Rs 735 crore and spent Rs. 330.75 crore last year but in the current financial year, only Rs. 405.74 crore has been allocated  and Rs. 148.04 crore spent so far, which forced the TMREIS to remove certain employees hired on an outsourced basis.

The total provision for the Wakf Board in the budget since 2014-15 was Rs. 341 crore while it has spent only Rs. 188.83 crore (55.37%). The government has stopped releasing of amount to the Survey Commissioner of the Wakf for two years. The total expenditure on Survey Commission was only Rs. 91 lakh while the allocation was Rs. 19.50 crores(4.66%). The government has spent only Rs. 55.80 crore against the budgetary allocation of Rs. 150 crore (37%). The government has promised to construct a Christian Bhavan and a Sikh Bhavan but did not release a single rupee on these projects, even though it has earmarking amount for the purpose. Haj Committee spent Rs. 10.08 crores against the allocation of Rs. 16 crores.

Commenting on the trends of allocation and expenditure on minorities' schemes, Mr Mohammed Abdul Akram of Yugantar, an NGO, said it clearly shows that the government has spent a major portion of the amount on non-productive expenditures.

About 30 per cent of the expenditure (Rs. 971.87) was spent on Shadi Mubarak and Iftar and Christmas schemes. Though it has focused on education, it ignored the economic development of minority communities. He said government should reconsider its priorities and evolve schemes which equally bring improvements in education and economic fields for minorities.