Students from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes aiming at higher education abroad will henceforth get a grant of Rs.10 lakh and if needed, Rs.5 lakh bank loan.
Similarly, the subsidy for SC/ST farmers for land purchase has been upped from Rs.1 lakh to Rs.5 lakh per acre.
As a well-timed sop showered on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti, Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy announced the above two schemes for the benefit of the communities at the meeting conducted to create awareness on the SC-ST sub-plan on Sunday.
In fact, for the event on this significant day, Mr. Kiran Reddy chose Karvetinagaram village on the Tamil Nadu border, which falls under Gangadhara Nellore assembly constituency, said to be having the highest population of SC/ST communities.
‘Intellectuals’
Addressing the public meeting, Mr. Reddy said the Rs.10 lakh grant was aimed at providing boost to the backward communities and make them intellectuals like Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar.
“As the present upper limit of Rs.1 lakh per acre as market value for getting eligible for subsidy is too small given the rising land prices, the same is increased to Rs. 5 lakh.
The subsidy and repayment component will be worked out soon,” he said.
He said the ‘Indiramma Kalalu’ programme was aimed at realising the dreams of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for bringing social parity for the deprived communities.
Flays Opposition
The Chief Minister lambasted the opposition parties for failing to appreciate the State’s noble intention in getting the sub-plan and flayed TDP Chief N. Chandrababu Naidu for preferring to continue his walkathon instead of attending the Assembly to support the well-meaning scheme.
“The YSRCP, TRS and BJP too stayed away to prevent the sub-plan from becoming a reality,” he charged.
The Chief Minister inaugurated ‘Shree Shakti Upadhi Bhavan’ (Rs.30 lakh), integrated hostel (Rs.1.25 crore, 33/11 KV substation (Rs.1.05 crore) and laid stone for R&B guest house (Rs.75 lakh).
As sought by the local legislator and former Deputy Speaker G.Kuthuhalamma, he sanctioned an ‘Ambedkar Bhavan’ costing Rs.50 lakh. Ministers K.Parthasarathy (Secondary education), Galla Arunakumari (Mines and Geology), P.Satyanarayana (Social Welfare) and P.Balaraju (Tribal Welfare) and B. Satyanarayana (Transport) paid tributes to Dr.Ambedkar.
