Minority Welfare Dept to approach govt for funds for schemes

The Minority Welfare Department officials are expecting Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to release the balance amount at the earliest as the current financial year would end in the next three months.

Hyderabad: The Minority Welfare Department is planning to expecting the new Congress government to release the balance funds allotted under various schemes and programs for the welfare of the minorities in the current fiscal. The State government has allocated Rs 2,200.34 crore for minority welfare in the 2023-24 budget.

According to sources, the previous government had allocated budget for several schemes including Chief Minister’s Overseas Scholarship Scheme, scheme of Training Employment for Minority candidates, bank-linked subsidy scheme, scholarships, fee reimbursements, government hostels, maintenance of minority students’ hostels, minorities’ study circle, and other schemes. However, the government could not release the entire amount during the two quarter of the current financial year due to elections to the State assembly.

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The Minority Welfare Department officials are expecting Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to release the balance amount at the earliest as the current financial year would end in the next three months.

Giving details of the schemes which have to receive the budgeted amount, the sources informed that in the current fiscal the State government has allocated Rs. 3.78 crore for Minority Employment Training Scheme, but so far only Rs 94.7 lakh has been re-released . Similarly, for the welfare schemes implementation Rs. 120 crore was allocated but so far only Rs. 30 crore transferred to the Minority Finance Corporation.

Under the Bank-Linked Subsidy Scheme, the government allocated Rs.150 crore in the budget,but so far Rs 37.50 crore has been released. The previous government’s ambitious Chief Minister’s Overseas Scholarship Scheme was allocated Rs.118 crore in the budget and so far Rs 29.70 crore had been released in the second quarter.

For the Minority Student Scholarship an amount of Rs. 70.80 crore was allocated in the budget and Rs. 17.70 crore has been released and the balance amount has yet to be released by the finance department. Under the Fee Reimbursement Scheme Rs. 236 crore was planned and Rs. 59 crore was released in the first quarter. The balance amount has yet to be released.

The overall budget for the second quarter of the current financial year was Rs. 778.90 crore, of which Rs 194.88 crore has been released so far, the sources said.

The Telangana Congress has promised to increase the minority welfare budget to Rs. 4,000 crore after coming to power. Additionally, the Congress promised Rs 1,000 crore per annum to provide subsidised loans to jobless minority youth and women.