MIM Legislative Party leader Akbaruddin Owaisi has questioned the discriminatory stipulation with regard to income limit for SC, ST, OBC and Minorities, vis-a-vis the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), when it comes to applicability of schemes.
As per the government orders, for a person to be considered as belonging to EWS, the family income from all sources should be below ₹8 lakh, whereas for other sections, the limit is ₹1 lakh in rural areas and ₹2 lakh in urban, he pointed out, and sought equalising the income limit to ₹8 lakh for all sections.
During his address on minority welfare in the State Legislative Assembly on Monday, Mr. Owaisi has made an impassioned plea for treatment of minority communities on par with the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, in view of the educational and economic backwardness among Muslims who constitute large chunk of minorities in the State.
While the promise for 12 % reservations is yet to be implemented, budgetary allocations and spending too have nothing to boast of, he said.
Since 2014-15, the government has allocated ₹9,448 crore for Minority Welfare, but spent only ₹6199 crore, which is less than what had been spent on Haritha Haram during the same period, he said.
Subsidy from the Minority Finance Corporation has been totally stopped since 2016-17. More than 1.5 lakh loan applications had been pending up to 2015-16, of which 90 % have not been granted.
A total of 804 orders were issued for construction of mosques, compound walls and graveyards between 2015 and 2019, but not one paisa has been released so far.
Chairman posts of all the minority institutions are lying vacant, and Official Languages Commission has no Urdu speaking person as member. None of the newly appointed Vice-Chancellors for the State universities is from minority communities. Telangana State Public Service Commission has no representation of minorities, he pointed out, even while praising the government’s schemes for minority communities.
Speaking of educational backwardness among Muslims, Mr. Owaisi sought permanent buildings for Telangana Minority Residential Educational Institutions, and upgradation of the schools to degree colleges.
While quotas are reserved in Hyderabad Public School for SCs and STs, no such facility is available for minority students, he said, and demanded skill development training for the latter too in cracking tests such as TOEFL, GRE and IELTS, for overseas admission.
Applications for overseas scholarships should be accepted twice every year, in tandem with the admission seasons, he demanded.
Fee reimbursement dues are pending since 2014-15, due to which colleges are not issuing certificates, rendering overseas education an unfulfilled dream for minorities. A total of 56,653 applications for fee reimbursement await disbursement, he said.
He also spoke about large scale encroachments of lands under the State Waqf Board, and sought judicial powers for the Board.
