Hyderabad: Panchayat Raj and Tribal Welfare Minister Seethakka accused the previous BRS government of diverting Scheduled Tribe (ST) Sub Plan funds and vowed to ensure every rupee now reaches intended beneficiaries.
At the 7th Tribal Welfare Advisory Council meeting held at Damodaram Sanjivayya Welfare Bhavan in Masab, Seethakka said the Congress government was correcting “a decade of errors” committed under BRS.
She alleged that funds meant for tribal areas were routinely diverted under the earlier regime, leaving remote habitations without basic infrastructure. “Because of this, pregnant women in many tribal belts suffered due to the lack of roads and bridges,” she said.
Seethakka insisted that ST Sub Plan allocations must not be repurposed and warned that misuse would leave agency regions permanently backward. “Every paisa sanctioned for ST development must be spent for that purpose alone,” she said.
The minister also flagged a housing crisis in tribal communities, stating that a significant number of ST families lacked homes. She said the government was actively considering increasing the budget for housing construction in tribal belts.
She acknowledged a long-standing demand to relax minimum land ownership norms for eligibility under the Indiramma housing scheme for STs. “This has been brought to Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s notice, and we will pursue a resolution,” Seethakka added.
Welfare Minister Adluri Laxman Kumar, Deputy Speaker Ramachandra Naik, MP Godam Nagesh, ST MLAs and MLCs, TRICOR chairman Bellayya Naik, Special Chief Secretary Vikas Raj, Tribal Welfare Secretary Sharath, and senior officials attended the meeting.