Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has demanded that the Central Government should implement a scheme similar to Dalit Bandhu, being implemented in Telangana, across the country, to uplift the Dalit communities.
Minister for SC Development Koppula Eshwar and legislators M. Anand, K. Chander and L. Ramana said here on Sunday that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was the only leader in the country doing justice to Dalits.
The Dalit Bandhu scheme had already benefited 32,000 families with financial assistance of ₹3,249 crore for improving their livelihoods and ensuring that they take up economic activities of their choice.
Ridiculing those spreading misinformation on Dalit Bandhu scheme, they said it was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that was behind the debate against freebies including Dalit Bandhu. They suggested the BJP to include a scheme similar in its manifesto for the next elections if the party had any affection for Dalits and implement it across the country.
The TRS leaders alleged that attacks and atrocities on Dalits were on the rise in BJP-ruled States. Social boycott and denial of entry into temples had become common in States such as Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. The statistics revealed by the Centre in Parliament had also confirmed the fact that atrocities on Dalit communities had gone up in the BJP-ruled States.
Stating that BJP had no love for SC and ST communities, the TRS leaders said that the poor had become poorer and the rich had become richer during the last 8 years of BJP rule in the country. They said the talk of discontinuing freebies was a conspiracy against such communities. They thanked the Chief Minister for extending Dalit Bandhu scheme to 1,500 families in every constituency.
