Telangana needs Rs 10,000cr for Dalit Bandhu every year

HYDERABAD: The state government had sanctioned Rs 85,913 crore for the Scheduled Castes Development department by way of financial support to the SCs (Dalits) in the last seven years. It has, however, released Rs 57,100 crore and spent much less, Rs 47,685 crore.

The government will needs to completely rework the SC development budget if it aims to extend the promised financial support of Rs 10 lakh per family as the Dalit Bandhu benefit.

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has said that 13 lakh SC families are eligible for Dalit Bandhu, out of the estimated 15 lakh Dalit families in the state. He said one lakh to two lakh eligible Dalit families would be covered every year under the scheme.

If one lakh dalits are covered a year, the state needs to allocate Rs10,000 crore for the purpose. At this rate, it will take 13 years to cover all 13 lakh families.

This year, the government sanctioned Rs 20,000 crore for SC Development. This includes Aasara pensions, Kalyana Laxmi, 2BHK scheme, ration, free power, fee reimbursement, scholarships, Arogyasri, industrial incentives, bank-linkage loans for self-employment, roads, infrastructure and tens of other welfare schemes.

Against this backdrop, questions arise over the availability of funds for the Dalit Bandhu scheme. While addressing a Dalits’ meeting in his adopted village Vasalamarri on Wednesday, the CM made it clear: "None of the ongoing welfare schemes and development programmes will be halted due to the introduction of the Dalit Bandhu scheme. Dalits will continue to receive all these benefits as usual. Dalit Bandhu is only an additional benefit and not a replacement for all other ongoing schemes."

The SC department budget needs to be increased to 30,000 crore to meet the Dalit Bandhu expenditure to cover at least one lakh families per year
from the present Rs 21,306 crore. The sum is not enough to cover pending fee reimbursement and scholarship arrears of Dalit students for two years, the industrial incentives for Dalit entrepreneurs, and the bank-linked loans for the uemployed Dalit youths for the past four years.

The total revenue expenditure of the state government last year (2020-21) was Rs 1.33 lakh crore. Against this backdrop, doubts arise over the state’s ability to earmark Rs 30,000 crore just for the SC Development department.

In 2017, the TS government brought forward the Special Development Fund Act to earmark funds in the Budget proportionate to the population of the SCs and STs in the state. Though the budget figures meet this norm every year, there exists a wide gap between the promises and allocations.

If unspent funds were transferred to subsequent years sincerely, as directed in the Act, the SC Development department should be overflowing with funds and there should be no pending unpaid arrears for Dalit beneficiaries.
The TRS government had launched a scheme for distribution of three acres of land to each Dalit family amid much fanfare in 2014. But the scheme could not become a success due to funds crunch. In the last seven years, only 6,662 Dalit families given 16,544 acres of land at a cost of Rs 735 crore.

Later, the government almost shelved this scheme, saying government lands are not available in state and purchasing private lands became too expensive.

SC Development budget allocations and spending in the last seven years

*Rs in crores ** Till September