The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has paid rich tributes to social reformer and crusader of women’s empowerment Jyotiba Phule on his 197th birth anniversary on Thursday at the party headquarters in Hyderabad and across the State.
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Working president of the party K.T. Rama Rao said the previous BRS government in the State had followed the ideology of Phule in practice and not just in words by establishing more than 1,000 residential schools/colleges with the belief that it was with education progress was possible and equality could be achieved only through progress as suggested by Phule. The government had spent over ₹1.25 lakh a year on every student in the residential educational institutions.
To help realise the dreams of overseas higher education by the students of backward sections of the society, the previous government had offered ₹20 lakh each overseas fellowship in the name of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Mr. Rama Rao said, adding that it was the BRS that had given maximum numbers of tickets to BC candidates for the Assembly elections and 50% of unreserved seats to them for Lok Sabha elections.
Criticising the Congress for not making any allocation for BC Sub-Plan in the vote on account for 2024-25 after promising ₹20,000 crore during the campaigning for Assembly election, the BRS leader said it was the party leader K. Kavitha who had been demanding installation of Jyotiba Phule statue on the Assembly premises for long.
Former Speaker S. Madhusudana Chary alleged that the Congress party had been utilising BCs only as a vote bank and doing nothing in practice. Former Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah said several initiatives were taken up to bring equality in the society during the last 10-year BRS rule.