Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s failed promises for Dalits over the last years cannot be compensated by naming the Secretariat after B.R. Ambedkar, former PCC chief Ponnala Lakshmaiah said.
In a letter to the Chief Minister, he demanded a white paper on the welfare of the Scheduled Castes in the last eight years rule of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and also an explanation of why the assigned lands are being snatched from them excluding those lands from Dharani portal.
If KCR was serious enough to honour Ambedkar he should explain why a Dalit was not made Chief Minister of Telangana as promised by him during the Telangana agitation. At the same time, the first Dalit Deputy Chief Minister, Rajaiah was unceremoniously removed and even today the reason was not revealed.
Mr. Lakshmaiah alleged that lakhs of Dalits would have benefitted by now if the three-acre land distribution was undertaken. The government should reveal how many acres were distributed. Similarly, how many 2 BHK houses were given in the last eight years and among the beneficiaries how many were Dalits? The Dalita Bandhu introduced just for Huzurabad elections had remained on paper and the figures of applicants and beneficiaries should be revealed, he demanded.
He also alleged that ₹65,000 crore from the SC and ST sub-plan introduced by the Congress were carried over in the last eight years thus hitting the Dalits. In the name of digitising the lands under the Dharani portal, the government had snatched hundreds of acres from Dalits. The records had also vanished ensuring that Dalits can never claim the lands again, he alleged.
Due to KCR’s failure to waive farm loans about 16 lakh accounts of farmers had been declared NPAs and among them nearly three lakh accounts belong to Dalit farmers.
