Centre committed for reservations: Ramdas

Hyderabad, Jan 22 (INN): The Union Government was committed for implementation of reservations, said Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athwale while speaking to media persons here on Sunday.

The Union Minister said that in order to abolish casteism the Inter-caste marriages should be support and 'Untouchability' be abolished by spreading the values of liberty, equality and fraternity in the society. Speaking on the SC Sub plan Ramdas Athwale said that Rs. 10, 484 Crore was provided out of which Telangana share is Rs. 7,800 Crore.

"The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has been implementing the 'Dr. Ambedkar Scheme for Social Integration through Inter-Caste Marriages'. The incentive for a legal inter-caste marriage of Rs.2.50 lakh to the SC Couple, which will be provided through Ambedkar foundation. The Scheme would provide incentive to 500 such marriages in one year. Physical target for each state is fixed in proportion to the percentage share of SC population," the Union Minister said.

Ramdas Athawale also said that the Government of Telangana also implementing 'Kalyan Lakshmi 'scheme wherein it offers Rs. 51 thousand for the marriage of Schedule caste girls. Nearly 2,200 beneficiaries benefited under this scheme. He appealed to the Telangana Government to increase the incentive money to RS. 5 Lakhs to inter-caste marriage couples.

The Union Minister further said that the Union government has given pre-metric scholarships worth of Rs. 331.86 cr. to 2,78,333 SC students across the country. The Union government is also offering foreign scholarships of Rs. 30 Lakhs to 50 Lakhs to each SC students who are getting admission in foreign universities. As many as 326 students benefited by foreign scholarships in last three years by Telangana Government. State Government is also offering worth of Rs. 249 Cr scholarships to SC Students out of which Rs. 219 Cr is being towards post-metric scholarships and Rs. 30 cr for Pre-metric scholarships.

Speaking on the atrocity cases on SCs, the Union Minister said that in Telangana state 1,689 SC atrocity cases were registered in 2015 and 1,904 SC atrocity cases were registered in 2016. Telangana stood 9th position in the atrocity cases in the country. Speaking on the SC murder cases the minister said that 39 SC murder cases were registered in 2015 and 42 SC murder cases were registered in 2016. As many as 850 SC inter caste marriages were registered in 2015 while 251 inter-caste marriages were registered in 2016.

The Union Minister also said that the Centre has increased the reservations for Disabled from 3 to 4%.