The sudden announcement made by Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday that the much-publicised Dalit Bandhu scheme was being launched from his adopted village Vasalamarri in Yadadri Bhongir district evoked a lot of surprise.
As announced earlier, KCR was supposed to launch the Dalit Bandhu scheme on August 16 in Huzurabad, which is going for by-elections most likely in September.
He even announced that he had chosen Huzurabad to launch the pilot project of Dalit Bandhu, obviously to gain political mileage in the elections.
But on Wednesday, the chief minister changed his mind. He made a surprise visit to Vasalamarri, where he interacted with Dalit families.
He went round the houses of Dalits and promised to provide double bedroom houses to all the homeless.
Suddenly, KCR enquired them about the Dalit Bandhu scheme and asked them what they would do if they are given Rs 10 lakh each under the scheme.
Some told the CM that they would set up a dairy farm, some would buy tractors and some would do business.
“I am launching Dalit Bandhu right away. Within 24 hours, I will release Rs 10 lakh each to 76 Dalit families in this village and they can do whatever they want with the money,” the chief minister.
“The proposed launch of the scheme at Huzurabad will now be a just formality,” he said.
And on Thursday, the government issued a GO, releasing Rs 7.6 crore from Telangana Scheduled Castes Development Corporation to the account of Yadadri Bhongir district collector, who in turn was asked to sanction the grant to each Dalit family, so that they would take up whatever activity they can.
Why did KCR take such a sudden decision to launch the scheme at Vasalamarri, instead of Huzurabad, as announced earlier? According to a political observer, the chief minister took this shift because of a petition filed in the high court questioning the launch of the scheme in Huzurabad with an eye on elections.
If the high court takes serious view of the petition and questions the launch of the scheme in poll-bound Huzurabad, it might create trouble to the government.
So, if KCR launches the scheme somewhere else, nothing would prevent him from continuing it in Huzurabad.
Secondly, it would give a sort of confidence among the Dalits, who are apprehensive that KCR might launch the scheme, but might not release the money.
Since it is just Rs 7.06 crore for just one village, he did not hesitate to release the money.
“If he launches the programme in Huzurabad, the government would have to shell down huge money in just one constituency.
And that would trigger demands from other constituencies as well, putting the government in an embarrassment position,” the observer said.
So, KCR chose to launch the scheme in Vasalamarri.
One won’t be surprised if the chief minister takes it easy with the scheme in Huzurabad, where he would come up with yet another surprising announcement to garner votes!
