Express News Service By

Apparently with an intent to woo the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has announced that those who consume less than 100 units of power need not pay anything.

Besides, nearly 10 lakh SC and ST families, who owe Discoms towards power charges, do not have to bother about them since all the outstanding arrears are being waived. He also announced Rs 1 lakh financial assistance to them for construction of houses.

Kiran Kumar Reddy, launching a string of programmes to promote awareness on the benefits that would accrue to the SCs and STs under the SC/ST Sub-plan, which has been accorded statutory status, said here on Friday that he decided to waive SCs and STs’ dues to Discoms amounting to Rs 268 crore. Reddy apparently took these decisions to retain the Congress’ SC and ST vote-bank, particularly that of Malas, which is believed to have shifted to the Jagan camp of late.

Kiran Reddy, after explaining how accordance of statutory status to SCs and STs would help them, pointed out that his government was keen on providing an assortment of groceries worth Rs 292 at Rs 185 to the poor from Ugadi. This scheme will benefit about 7.50 lakh people.

The chief minister said that in 2013-14, an allocation of Rs 12,256 crore was made in the budget for SCs and STs, of which Rs 8,585 crore was for SCs.

After according statutory status to the sub-plan, the funds earmarked for their welfare should be utilised only for them and can’t be diverted. If the funds lapse, they will be carried over to the next financial year for use only for the welfare of SCs and STs, he said.

Those who took part in the meeting included ministers Kanna Lakshminarayana (agriculutre), Botcha Satyanarayana (transport) Vatti Vasanta Kumar (tourism)and P Satyanarayana (welfare).