Congress senior leader and Advisor to the Telangana Government (SC, ST, BC, and Minorities) Mohammed Ali Shabbir expressed profound disappointment with the interim budget presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Lok Sabha on Thursday, particularly to minorities.
In response to the budget speech, Shabbir Ali stated that the BJP Government has allocated only Rs 3,183.24 crore for the welfare of minorities. The allocation in 2023-24 was Rs 3,097.60 crore, later revised to Rs 2,608.93 crore. Therefore, the allocation for 2024-25 is just Rs 86 crore higher than the previous year.
“One can imagine the value of Rs 3,183 crore in a budget of Rs 47.66 lakh crore. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who speaks about ‘Sabka Vikas,’ should explain how he plans to ensure the welfare of minorities, who constitute over 15% of the country’s total population, by spending just 0.000668% of the country’s annual budget,” he said.
Shabbir Ali condemned the BJP Government for cutting down the budget for various schemes, especially those related to minority education. He noted that the overall allocation for Education Empowerment has been reduced from Rs 1,689 crore in 2023-24 to Rs 1,575.72 crore in 2024-25.
Except for Post-Matric Scholarships for Minorities, whose allocation has been increased from Rs 1,065 crore to Rs 1,145.38 crore, allocations for all other schemes have been reduced. These include Pre-Matric Scholarship for Minorities (Rs 433 crore to Rs 326.16 crore); Merit-cum-Means Scholarship for professional and technical courses (Rs 44 crore to Rs 33.80 crore); Maulana Azad National Fellowship for Minority Students (Rs 96 crore to Rs 45.08 crore); Free Coaching and allied schemes for Minorities (Rs 30 crore to Rs 10 crore); Interest Subsidy on Educational loans for Overseas Studies (Rs 21 crore to Rs 15.30 crore)
