SANGAREDDY: In almost all villages, those who do not find their names in the list of beneficiaries of the government’s various welfare schemes are restive. They are angry with the sarpanches and other public representatives for not including their names in the beneficiaries’ list. They allege that the leaders are only including the names of their followers and not members of the general public.
Take for instance the Rs 1 lakh BC Bandhu scheme. The financial help is meant for those who are into their traditional avocations. Also, the government has announced Rs 1 lakh to minorities, Rs 10 lakh under Dalit Bandhu, and Rs 3 lakh under Gruha Lakshmi. Under these schemes, no more than five to 10 beneficiaries find their names in the list in each village while hundreds are excluded.
Those who do not find their names insist that they too should be included and all those eligible in a village should get the benefit and not a select few. Mainly, the Dalit Bandhu scheme has become a bone of contention as the government is doling out Rs 10 lakh to help the beneficiary to start their own business.
As the benefit is high, there is an acute competition to get into the beneficiary list of the Dalit Bandhu scheme.
The same people who once glorified Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao are now maligning his image and are burning his effigies, all because their names are excluded from the beneficiaries’ list. Protests are being organised in villages including Gajwel, which is represented by the chief minister in the Assembly. Dalits in various villages are protesting in front of the offices of the village sarpanch and village panchayat. They are demanding that they too should get Dalit Bandhu benefits.
Recently, the villagers of Thimmapur of Jagadevpur mandal and Ankireddypally of Kondapaka mandal from Gajwel constituency burnt the effigies of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and staged a protest in front of the offices of the sarpanch and the village panchayat. They demanded that the Dalit Bandhu scheme should be sanctioned in the first phase only to those who are living in poverty and squalor.
In fact, Dalit activists belonging to the ruling party burnt the chief minister’s effigy in Guruvannapet village of Komuravelli mandal which vindicated the claim that Dalit Bandhu is creating more unrest than happiness in rural areas. In fact, the government is receiving hundreds of applications in every village. In Mogudampally in the Zaheerabad constituency, as many as 4,000 applications have been received for the Dalit Bandhu benefit.
A large number of applications have also been received for financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh under BC Bandhu. With hundreds of applications coming for each of the schemes, selecting the beneficiaries has become tricky for both the officials and the public representatives.
Benefits and recommendation
As all the benefits of the welfare schemes are given on the recommendation of the MLAs, the beneficiaries are visiting their houses and those of other leaders of the ruling party. The leaders wonder whether these welfare schemes would improve the prospects of the ruling party.