The Telangana government will launch the distribution of three acres of agriculture land to landless poor from August 15.
Chief Minister of Telangana K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday said that his government would identify one village in each mandal and identify genuine Dalits for land distribution. On a single day, land will be distributed in 500 villages. He will launch the programme in Karimnagar district.
Mr. Rao on Tuesday held a brainstorming session with the Collectors of 10 districts to chalk out an action plan to uplift the Dalits in the State. Stating much hype was created about the welfare of the SCs, but actually very little funding was done for their uplift, he has said that Collectors should lead the war against elimination of poverty from SC colonies in the new State.
Change sought“There is no visible change in their lifestyle,” Mr. Rao said adding that thousands of crores had been spent on their welfare, but still poverty was visible in the Dalit colonies. “In the next five years, I want complete change in the living conditions of the SCs across the State. I promise to spend 14.5 per cent of the budget exclusively for the welfare programmes of the Dalits,” he added. He said the Social Welfare Department would be henceforth be renamed as SC Development Department. Mr Rao said he had had retained the welfare portfolios with him only to pay more attention to their welfare.
Action planThe Chief Minister promised to spend Rs. 4,000 crore in the next five years in each district for Dalit welfare alone. He wanted the Collectors to take the initiative in preparing an action plan on SC welfare programmes. He said shortly, a special officer exclusively to deal with the SC welfare programmes would be appointed in each mandals. All the 10 districts would be divided into 510 units for effective implementation of the welfare programmes.
CommitteesIn a bid to encourage educated SC youth, the Chief Minister said Dalitwada-level committees comprising men and women would be constituted shortly.
The meeting was attended among others by Finance Minister Etela Rajender, Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma, Principal Secretary (Welfare) T. Radha, Principal Secretary (social welfare) Raymond Peter, advisor to Government (Welfare) Ramlaxman. Mallepalli Lakshmaiah and Ganta Chakrapani were invited as special invitees.
