Pitching for the development of the minorities, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has said that the government has allocated Rs. 1,030 crores in the first state budget for the welfare and development of the minorities.
He said that backwardness among the minorities can be eradicated only through education. A majority of minorities are dependent on petty jobs and trades. Hence they are not been able to send their children for better education. Understanding this, the state government wanted the children of the minorities to get good and quality education without having any financial burden on their parents, he said.
The state government has decided to set up residential schools exclusively for the minorities at a cost of Rs. 8,000 crores in the state. During 2016-17 Academic year, 71 minority residential schools were started. Another 129 schools will be started in the next academic year. With this, there will be 200 residential schools for the minorities in the state, he added.
Realising that there is a large percent of girls dropping out of the schools, Rao further said that the state government has made 100 residential schools for the girls. No other state or government in this country has ever made such a step for the minorities. About 1, 28, 000 students (both girls and boys) will get a global level education in English Medium from these schools. These revolutionary measures for the minorities will usher in a wonderful future for these youngsters, he said.
The Telangana Chief Minister informed that the state government has introduced Overseas Scholarships Scheme for those minority students pursuing their education abroad.
Last year, under this Scheme, 463 students were given Rs 10 lakh scholarship each besides providing their airfare. This year we have increased the scholarship amount from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. We have given premetric scholarship to 89,000 minority students at a cost of Rs 35 crore. On par with SC/ST/BC students, 1, 18,000 minority students studying from Intermediate to PG were given Post Metric scholarship to each one who have applied. Like SC/ST students, minority students were also given the fee reimbursement notwithstanding their ranks. We have paid Rs 219.43 crores to 1,18,000 minority students during the academic year 2015-16, he said.