Hyderabad: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Saturday said that the state government would undertake a caste-based census in Telangana state, as assured by the Congress during the recent Assembly elections campaign.
All officials have been asked to take necessary action to launch caste census on a priority basis, sources said. Telangana will become the third state after Bihar and Andhra Pradesh to undertake caste census.
The caste census is to help the government determine the proportion of population belonging to various castes. Reservations to SCs, STs, BCs and minorities communities are based on old data, which the Congress government wants to update for taking policy decisions and extend government scheme benefits.
Revanth Reddy was addressing a review meeting on welfare departments of backward classes, minorities and STs at the Secretariat.
He also approved 'green channel' for release of funds to welfare schemes to avoid delays. The green channel ensures that welfare schemes receive funds directly from the government treasuries and sub-treasuries, rather than the departments having to wait for clearance from the finance department every quarter.
Revanth Reddy directed officials to furnish complete details of Gurukul schools that are functioning from rented buildings. He instructed officials to come up with proposals for construction of permanent buildings for Gurukul schools and identify suitable land for the purpose.
The budget proposals will be prepared after estimating construction costs of each school. He said that diet charges and cooking bills of Gurukul schools should be cleared without delay. The payments will be made through the green channel, he said.
Reddy directed the officials to implement the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Overseas Scholarship Scheme more effectively and ensure that more students avail of the scheme benefits. A framework has to be prepared to identify top foreign universities based on their rankings. Students going abroad to pursue higher education should be given priority in availing the scheme benefits, he said.
He said that all SC, ST and BC Gurukul institutions should be established in the integrated educational hub instead of being set up in different places. He said that proposals should be prepared to build an integrated hub in every Assembly constituency. The hubs will help in efficient management, supervision and better administration of schools, whose students could develop a more competitive spirit and improve their talent by studying in the same campus. He suggested construction of educational hubs in all constituency headquarters. Alternatively, officials were asked to identify places in town or mandal headquarters in case lands were not available in the headquarters.
Reddy said that government would seek the cooperation of corporate bodies and companies for establishing education hubs, especially by way of corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds, which would also be sought for boosting infrastructure, supply of blankets, notebooks and uniforms to students in government welfare hostels.
The Chief Minister urged officials to come up with budget estimates to provide scheme benefits, including 10 gram gold to beneficiaries of Kalyana Mastu and Shaadi Mubarak.
He said that feasibility of BC study circles in every Parliamentary constituency in place of the existing ones would be studied in detail.
BC welfare minister Ponnam Prabhakar, ST welfare minister Seethakka, chief secretary A. Santhi Kumari and other top officials participated in the review meeting.
