KCR raises voice for Dalits; plans protest with 1.3 lakh Dalits

The Congress, which promised to scale up the Dalit Bandhu assistance from Rs.10 lakh to Rs.12 lakh, had however frozen the funds, proving that it had intended nothing but mere lip service.

Hyderabad: Continuing his fiery attack on the State government, listing out its follies and failures one by one, Leader of Opposition and Bharat Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrashekhar Rao on Saturday said the State had ended up in utter disarray in just four months of Congress rule.

Almost every section in the society were let down, he said, adding that it was more so with the Dalits, who were deprived of the Dalit Bandhu financial assistance.

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The Congress, which promised to scale up the Dalit Bandhu assistance from Rs.10 lakh to Rs.12 lakh, had however frozen the funds, proving that it had intended nothing but mere lip service.

Addressing a well-attended public meeting at Chevella as part of launching his poll campaign ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Chandrashekhar Rao pointed out that the previous BRS government had introduced the Dalit Bandhu scheme covering over 1.30 lakh beneficiaries in the first phase.

They were all in for a rude shock now as they were left without the rightful assistance as the State government had opted for freezing the funds meant for the programme.

The proceedings issued by the previous government extending financial help to the beneficiaries were officially withdrawn, he said, calling it a brazen move to deprive the Dalits of their due.

The BRS would not sit silent, he said, stating that he would stage a massive protest in front of the Dr BR Ambedkar Secretariat on the issue soon.

“I will sit in protest along with all the 1.30 lakh Dalit Bandhu beneficiaries and fight the government for the benefits they were deprived of,” he said, appealing to intellectuals and youth from the Dalit communities to think over the great deprival they were subjected to. “Unless you come together to fight, it will be hard to expect the benefits of the scheme to come by,” he said, recalling that the BRS government had given precedence to the development of the Dalit communities who subjected to neglect for decades together.

The BRS government had installed the 125 feet statue of Ambedkar in the city and named the new Secretariat after the architect of the Constitution of India.

Treading the path of Ambedkar and Mahatma Phule, over 1,100 schools were established for Dalit students and later upgraded into junior colleges.

His government had also introduced the overseas scholarships enabling Dalit students to study abroad. Shockingly, not even a single student was given the overseas scholarship since the Congress came to power, he said.

The importance accorded to the Dalits, tribal communities, minorities and backward classes was on the wane under the Congress, while the status of all other welfare programmes implemented by the previous government was more or less the same.

Stating that any government should be a source of confidence to the people, Chandrashekhar Rao said the faith the people had reposed on the Congress enabling it to come to power was missing today, because of the party’s failure to utilise the facilities and infrastructure put in place by the previous government.