In a please-all Budget, the Telangana Government has sought to adopt an inclusive approach towards all the sections of the people.
In a record of sorts the Budget for 2018-19 has made an allocation of Rs 2,000 crore, a 60% increase over last year’s Rs 1,250 crore allocation.
The majority welfare budget which was Rs 1,030 crore at the time of the creation of Telangana State has almost doubled now registering an unprecedented increased.
Even as the critics expressed dissatisfaction over the slow speed of spending the Budget by the minority welfare department, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen has welcomed the increase.
The Budget includes Rs 735 crore for the minority residential schools and Rs 20 crore for Aneesul Ghurba orphanage. The Budget proposed to increase the subsidies for the self employment schemes for minorities to 80 per cent from 50 per cent. The Finance Minister E Rajender has also proposed to increase the scholarships for the higher overseas education for the Muslim students by allocating Rs 100 crore and Rs 1,500 per month salary for the Imams and Muezzins of mosque with an allocation of Rs 80 crore.
The Budget also proposes to spend Rs 200 crore on Shaadi Mubarak scheme to help the poor girls and Rs 66 crore for Iftar and Christmas celebrations.
MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi commending the finance minister for increasing the budget allocation said, “this is the result of keen interest the Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao took in minorities welfare since the formation of the State”.
The critics on the other hand pointed out that while in case of Scheduled Castes, scheduled tribes and the backward classes the unspent budget of this year is passed on to the next year, the minority budget lapses as it does not have the legal guarantee.
Apart from allocating Rs 9,693 crore for the welfares of scheduled tribes, Rs 16,453 crore for scheduled castes and Rs 5,920 crore for the backward classes welfare the Budget has also allocated Rs 672 crore for the temples and the priests’ salaries. Rs 250 crore was allocated to the development of Yadadri temple which the Government envisages to develop as an alternate to the Tirumala.