Hyderabad: AIMIM floor leader in the Assembly Akbar Uddin Owaisi has urged Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao to enhance budgetary allocations for Minorities Welfare Department to Rs 4,100 crore in the forthcoming 2018-19 budget.
In a letter to the Chief Minister, Akbar Uddin Owaisi expressed gratitude to the former for making budgetary allocation of Rs 1,249.49 crore and additional allocations of Rs 97.43 crores for Minorities Welfare Department in the State Budget for 2017-18. He requested the Chief Minister to ensure that the allocated funds for minorities welfare are released before the end of the financial year on March 31. He also appreciated the initiatives launched by the Minorities Welfare Department in the last four financial years. He also thanked the Chief Minister for bringing various schemes for minorities on par with similar schemes meant for the SCs and STs in the State.
Overall, the budgetary allocations for Minorities welfare have aggregated to Rs 4,613.85 crore in the four years (2014-15 to 2017-18) but the budgetary releases have amounted to only Rs 2,702 crore and the actual expenditure has totaled Rs 2,330 crore. By the end of current financial year, this figure may reach Rs 2,500 crore, he said.
Akbar also requested the State government to enhance the grant under Shaadi Mubarak scheme to Rs 100,116 from the existing Rs 75,116. (NSS)