Government’s Indifference to Minorities

Hyderabad: The ruling party was in a fix regarding the issue of welfare of minorities. Members of YSRCP raised the faults of the Government regarding the allocation of funds to the welfare of minorities. They criticized that the Government had been lying about the allocation. They protested by sitting down around the speaker’s podium against the Government’s not allowing the opposition party members to walk out pertaining to this issue.

The Government had announced that they had spent 60% of funds for the welfare of minorities in the financial year of 2014-15, when they spent Rs.20 crore from the allocated Rs.60 crore. YSRCP MLA Amzad Basha questioned what had happened to the remaining Rs.40 crore, speaking at the assembly’s media point. He condemned the Government for its atrocity towards the minorities. He also mentioned loan to the unemployed. He recollected that TDP had promised Rs.5 lakh loan without interest prior to elections to the unemployed. He questioned what happened to that. He also demanded to know what had happened to the rest of the funds when the Government had spent Rs.2 crore for the Muslims of YSR district from the allotted Rs.5.5 crore.

 Amzad Basha recollected that the Government had promised to sanction Rs.5000 assistance to each of the minority women of self-help groups and assistance of Rs.50,000 for the wedding of girls of minority classes. He commented that all these promises were now forgotten. He also complained that not one rupee of the Rs.40 crore allotted for free metric scholarship was spent. He also added that the Government disregarded its promise of giving loans up to Rs.5 lakh to the Muslim youth. Amzad Basha remarked that the Government was doing this as a revenge towards the Muslims for voting for YSRCP the last elections.

YSRCP MLA SV Mohan Reddy complained that the Government was showing discrimination towards the Muslims, the Christians and the other minority classes. He commented that the Government was not even able to form a committee, even if PM Narendra Modi introduced a 15-point scheme for the development and welfare of the minorities, specifying the need for a cell or a commission for the minority classes like SC. SV remarked that TDP and BJP together were suppressing the voice of the minority.

 YSRCP MLA Mustafa complained that they had admitted No Confidence Motion against the speaker due to his indifference to the opposition party MLAs. He mentioned that as soon as the issue of minorities was raised, they were not even given 2 minutes to speak.

 Kadiri MLA Chand Basha criticized the Government in the assembly. He condemned minister Raghunatha Reddy’s announcing that assistance was being given to Muslims with the name of Chandranna Ramzan Kanuka. He stated that the minister was lying and illustrated it saying that the budget report had mentioned that Rs.215 crore was allotted in 2015-16 budget for minority welfare while actually Rs.376 crore was allocated. He condemned showing expenditure more than allocation. While Chand Basha was still speaking, the speaker interfered and announced that examples were not required and stating that less amount was spent would be sufficient. Chand Basha complained that the time allowed to talk about minorities was being limited to less than 5 minutes while usually each question took 20-40 minutes.