Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Minorities Department chairman Shaik Abdullah Sohail blamed the TRS Government for rising unemployment among minorities in the State during the last five years.
Addressing a series of meetings on Thursday as part of Huzurnagar Assembly bye-elections campaign, Abdullah Sohail said more than 10 lakh educated and qualified youth belonging to minority communities were jobless. He alleged that the TRS Government took no measures to provide them jobs in public or private sectors or at least give them loans under self-employment schemes.
He pointed out that the TRS Government never focussed on creation of employment for minorities or their economic empowerment. He said of nearly 30 schemes/Heads of Departments under Minorities Welfare Department, only two were linked to creation of employee and both schemes remained a non-starter.
Abdullah Sohail said that the much hyped ‘Subsidy for Bank Linked Income Generated scheme’ and ‘T-Prime & T-SEZ’ remained on paper and not a single youth from minority communities benefitted from them. He said more than 1.5 lakh youth had applied for loans in the year 2015-16. Nearly 8,000 applications were approved and just for an eye wash a few hundred were given paltry sums as loans this year.
The Telangana State Minorities Corporation stopped receiving loan applications since 2015-16 and their website is still non-functional. He said last year Rs. 160 crore allocated and nothing was spent. This year this amount has been reduced to just Rs. 28.31 Crore a cut by 82%. On an average, he said, if one jobless youth is given a loan of Rs. 1 lakh then by cutting down allocation of Rs. 131.69 Crore, KCR has denied loan opportunity to 13,169 deserving youth. If allocated amount is spent then only 2,800 out of 1.5 lakh applicants will get loan.
He asked the minorities of Huzurnagar constituency to understand the gravity of the situation. He said when jobless youth of Hyderabad, where Muslims constitute nearly 41% of the total population, were being denied loans, what would the minority youth of Huzurnagar get, where they constitute less than 3% of the total population.
He said nearly 30% of the budget for minorities’ welfare has been slashed and it would badly impact the districts where minorities’ population is low. He challenged TRS leaders to show a single minority youth from Huzurnagar who got a loan, overseas scholarship scheme or any other benefit.
Similarly, he said that the T-Prime & T-SEZ schemes too remained a non-started. Rs. 25 crore were allocated last year, but not a single rupee was released and this year the amount has been reduced to zero. “KCR does not want minorities to grow economically and that’s why he shut down this scheme even before it was launched.
The District Minority Welfare offices are not functioning for want of funds. Minorities are being denied scholarship and Fee Reimbursement benefits. A few Muslim leaders of TRS are shamelessly spreading the propaganda of CM KCR while ignoring the reality that the Chief Minister was actually suppressing the educational and economic growth of minorities in the State,” he alleged.
Abdullah Sohail appealed to the minority youth of Huzurnagar not to fall prey to the TRS tactics and realise that TRS was BJP’s B-Team and it was implementing RSS agenda. He said the victory of Congress candidate Uttam Padmavathi would build pressure on the TRS Government to restore welfare schemes across the State and lakhs of minorities would benefit from the same. He said Uttam Padmavathi would be free to raise public issues in the Assembly and it would directly benefit the people.
However, if the TRS candidate wins, he would be just another addition in the group of KCR’s slaves who remain mute to all wrongs. Therefore, he said people of Huzurnagar must exercise their vote judiciously and elect Congress candidate. (Ends)