Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) recently said his government is ready to spend Rs 80,000 crore to Rs 1 lakh crore for Dalit Bandhu, touted as the country’s biggest direct benefit transfer scheme, to empower Dalits across the state.

What is the Telangana Dalit Bandhu scheme?

Dalit Bandhu is the latest flagship programme of the Telangana government.

• It is envisioned as a welfare scheme for empowering Dalit families and enable entrepreneurship among them through a direct benefit transfer of Rs 10 lakh per family.
• This is, once implemented on the ground, going to be the biggest cash transfer scheme in the country.
• Under the scheme, 11,900 Dalit families, 100 each from 119 Assembly constituencies in the state, would be selected for cash assistance of Rs 10 lakh each without any bank guarantee to start their businesses.
• An initial outlay of Rs 1,200 crore was sanctioned.

Why has the Dalit Bandhu scheme faced criticism?

The opposition parties have called Dalit Bandhu a poll stunt and a manipulative game by KCR to win over Dalit votes in the upcoming bypolls.

• They said government has failed in upholding existing legislation and schemes for the protection and empowerment of Dalits.
• if the government was serious about the pilot project, it would have tried the scheme in a SC constituency with the most marginalized instead of the Huzurabad Assembly where a bye-election is coming.

Source: Indian Express