Hyderabad, Feb 23:
The Telangana government has allocated Rs.2,262 crore for welfare of minorities in the vote-on-account Budget for financial year 2024-25 presented this month but like in the last few years the focus will be on whether the entire Budget for minorities will be actually spent on the ground.
This was the first Budget of the Congress government, which assumed office two months ago.
The amount is marginally higher than Rs.2,200.34 crore allocated to minority welfare in 2023-24 by the former government of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
However, the Congress government failed to meet its poll promise of allocating Rs 4,000 crore every year for minorities’ welfare.
Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, in his Budget speech, mentioned no schemes for minorities.
“With the aim of providing the best facilities and the education to SC& ST minority students we will strengthen the existing residential schools,” he said.
For the construction of new buildings for SC schools and ST schools, he proposed Rs.1,000 crores and Rs.250 crores respectively but made no announcement about allocation for minority schools.
Muslim leaders of the ruling party, however, defended the allocation made. They feel that the government has just started working and it should be given time.
Telangana Wakf Board chairman Azmatullah Hussaini said those who are reminding Congress of minorities declaration should understand that this is only vote-on-account Budget and still the allocation is higher than the last year.
“The Congress government is making sincere efforts to implement the promises made in the manifesto,” he said.
The Muslim leaders of Congress party are confident that allocation for minorities’ welfare will increase after the Lok Sabha elections when the Budget estimate will be revised and a full-fledged budget for 2024-25 will be released.
Shaik Abdullah Sohail, leader of opposition BRS, asked what happened to the Congress promise of Rs.4,000 crore Budget for minorities.
“In a budget of about Rs.2.75 lakh crore, a meagre sum of Rs.2,262 crore has been allocated for minorities’ welfare. This is just 0.82% of the total budget and only Rs.62 crore higher than the allocation made by the previous BRS government in 2023-24,” said Abdullah Sohail.
He pointed out that there is no mention of minority welfare schemes in the interim budget. In a 40-page speech, the word “minority” was mentioned only five times with no specific reference to any scheme, he said.
Sohail pointed out that the Congress Government has only stated that existing residential schools for minorities would be strengthened but did not make any allocations. While Rs.1,000 crore has been allocated for the construction of SC schools and Rs.250 for ST schools, no provision has been made for minority schools.
An analysis of the Budget shows that the new government tried to send across the message that it will enhance the allocation. An increase of 2.80% is in line with the trend observed over the last few years.
In the 2015-16 Budget, which was the first full-fledged Budget after the formation of Telangana state, the allocation for minorities was increased by 9.71%.
The increase in the subsequent two financial years was 6.55% and 3.78%, respectively.
There was a big surge of 60.07% in allocation for Telangana minorities’ welfare in 2018-19. The budget was increased with the sole purpose of expanding TMREIS schools in the state.
There was a sharp decrease of 31.50% in allocation in 19-20. The minorities Budget increased again by 10.81% in 2020-21. There was a 13.88% jump in 2021-22, and an impressive increase of 27.28% in 2022-23.
Last year, former finance minister Harish Rao announced a budget of Rs.2,200.34 crore for minorities in Telangana of which Rs.1,600.36 crore was for schemes and nearly Rs.600 crore was allocated for administrative expenditure, including maintenance and other expenses of minority institutions.
Minorities, who make up 14.24% of the total population in Telangana, were allocated Rs.1,030 crore in 2014-15 and Rs.1,130 crore in 2015-16.
The allocation touched Rs.2,000 crore in 2018-19 but dropped to Rs.1,369.95 crore in 2019-20. The allocation crossed Rs.2,200 in 2023-24.
The Minority Welfare Department was established in 1993 in united Andhra Pradesh and at that time the Budget for minority welfare was a meagre Rs 1.20 crores.