KHAMMAM: A festive mood has gripped Chintakani mandal under Madhira Assembly segment in Khammam district after Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao decided to implement the Dalit Bandhu scheme in four more mandals, besides the pilot project in Huzurabad.All 4,719 SC families hailing from the mandal are now eagerly waiting for the implementation of the government’s flagship programme.
According to sources, about 1,487 Chintakani SC families that had previously migrated to other parts of the State, in search of livelihood, have also started returning to their native mandal to receive Dalit Bandhu benefits. In the meantime, these families are scared that the authorities might reject their applications stating that they migrated to other places a long time ago. When Express spoke to a few such persons, they shared the fear while pointing out that they still have their old addresses in all necessary ID cards.
K Raghava, an SC man hailing from Chintakani mandal headquarters, said: “Me and my family don’t own any land in the mandal and migrated to Hyderabad a few years ago to work as daily wage labourers. However, after the State government announced its decision to implement Dalit Bandhu scheme in Chintakani, we returned hoping that it would change our lives forever.”
About 800 of the total 1,487 migrated families, have already returned to Chintakani, while the remaining ones will be here in a few days. According to sources, 1,538 of the total 4,719 SC families in the mandal do not possess any land.N Srikanth, who migrated to Vijayawada a few years ago to work as an electrician, said: “We are extremely happy that the government chose our mandal to implement the first phase of Dalit Bandhu.”
Though the potential beneficiaries have already geared up to receive Dalit Bandhu benefits, the authorities concerned have not received any guidelines yet. An official, who wished to remain anonymous, also said that they are awaiting a final “go-ahead” from the higher-ups. Chintakani has a total of 13,054 SCs, living in 33 hamlets across the mandal.