Activist demand to replicate dalit bandhu scheme in Tamil Nadu
arun
Posted On February 1, 2023
CHENNAI: A group of rights activists and lawmakers from the state visited Telangana last week to study its ‘revolutionary’ scheme ‘dalit bandu‘ to promote entrepreneurship ventures. The collective has urged the state government to replicate the model locally.Under the scheme, every Dalit family willing to start a business will be provided 10 lakh as flexible grant. They can use this money alone or jointly with other beneficiaries. The project is being piloted in Huzurabad assembly constituency where 18,000 families have benefited till date. Telangana is planning to expand the scheme to all 119 constituencies, and has allocated 3,200 crore for its implementation.
VA Ramesh Nathan from Social Awareness Society for , who was a part of the TN team that visited Huzurabad in Karim Nagar district, said that special officers have been appointed in each district, zone and village for the implementation of the scheme.
They have conducted door-to-door surveys in dalit residences last August and September to identify beneficiaries. Once the family card and community certificate were obtained as documents and applications filled, they were uploaded on state web portal by officials, who later provided assistance (including marketing of products) to budding traders to develop their business, Ramesh said.
Since then, dalit families in Huzurabad have ventured into 95 different types of business activities such as transport, agriculture, retail and service sectors.
After the three-day visit, the team headed by Kattumarnarkoil MLA Sinthanai Selvan and Tiruporur MLA SS Balaji have written to the government to replicate the scheme here.They also requested the state to issue a notification to pass a law on Scheduled Castes Special Sub Plan and the Tribal Sub Plan in the coming budget session.
Courtesy : Times of india
Note: This news piece was originally published in timesofindia.indiatimes.com and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights
