Devastation of Dalit Development Schemes

After the formation of Telangana government in 2014, the state has devised a scheme in 2017, which is known as Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribal Special Development Fund (use of the plan, allocation, and financial resources) Bill 2017.  The fund according to the proportion of its population for the Dalits and Tribal communities from its annual fund, and accordingly, the state is spending money for its development. It is found that there are around 12 lakh families of Schedule caste in the newly formed state. Out of which 9 lakh families live in rural and 3 lakh families live in urban. So, the government had found that out of 9 lakh families, 6 lakh families are landless which have less than 3 acres of land.

The government had put an order for land distribution under Land Purchase Scheme which promised that there will a distribution of land to this SC families and it also stated that if anybody wanted to sell their land can sell to the government. 

As per the Government Order (GO) No. 1, the government came up with the guidelines for the implementation Land Purchase Schemes. The government promised of providing 3 acres to 6 lakh families, which in total 18 lakh of acres which is supposed to be distributed. As per the action plan, the SC Corporation directly get the funds and as per the guidelines 10,000 acres should be distributed per year to the SC families.

Table 1. Status of Land Purchase Scheme

Year wise	Benificeries	Extend in acres	Amonunt (in Rs Lakhs)
2014-15	774	2043.32	7492.41
2015-16	1889	4932.18	20901.05
2016-17	860	2302.01	10516.67
2017-2018	1529	3615.39	16434.61
2018-19	326	768.27	3680
Total	5378	13662.37	59025.69

Source: Dalit Bahujan Resource Centre  and Dalit Bahujan Fronts 2018. Hyderabad

As per the target of 18 lakh acres is covered around 13662.37 acres which is cost around 59025.69 lakh (590 crores) with total beneficiaries 5378 families which cover 27 districts. The total distribution is 0.75%. The average status of the land purchase schemes as per district beneficiaries are 199 which extend 506 acres of land and the average amount spent is 2186 lakh rupees.

As per the guidelines, the SC Corporation supposed to allocate the funds in providing the facilities as well. The challenges that are faced by the allocated land are in uncultivable condition and there are the minimal amount of irrigation and electricity facilities.

From 2014 till now, the distribution of the land that is promised didn’t meet its objectives. The fund that had been allocated for the land distribution had been diverted to other programs which only benefited the non-SC families. For example Rythu Bandhu, the scheme has an investment support plan to support the livelihood of the farmers in Telangana state. The farmers get the annual financial assistance of Rs. 8000 per acre. On the other hand, there is no importance given to the distributed land.(As per DBRC )

The scheme for the Dalit community has been made very well by the Telangana state, but even after four years, it is far from the ground level. If we look at these plans by going through these communities, then even these schemes have not been able to reach them completely, even today, this scheme didn’t complete one percent by the state government. Every year, the government makes provisions for these schemes in its annual budget but it does not know exactly how much implemented.

By Bodhi R Chakma

Sources: Dalit Bahujan Resource Centre (DBRC), Hyderabad
Dalit Bahujan Fronts, Hyderabad

References

https://www.thehindu.com › News › States › Telangana

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