DECLARE DALIT BANDHU TAX FREE: SHABBIR

Senior Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Wednesday demanded that the State Government declare ‘Dalit Bandhu’ scheme tax-free. “Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao is not honest towards the scheme. He only intends to win Huzurabad by-elections by duping dalits. The state government has not taken legal precautions to ensure that it could be implemented without any hassles. Any income above `5 lakh is taxable. Therefore, all the beneficiaries will get notices from the IncomeTax department after they receive `10 lakh. Subsequently, they will have to forego 15 per cent in income-tax,” Shabbir Ali said in a release here on Wednesday.

He demanded that the state government approach the Centre seeking IT exemption for the scheme. “We demand that both the Centre and the state declare to Dalit Bandhu as tax-free so that the beneficiaries can get the entire amount,” he said.

Meanwhile, he congratulated Muslims on the occasion of ‘Muslim Reservation Day’ (August 25). He recalled that it was the Congress party that had initiated the process of giving quota in jobs and education to Muslims exactly 27 years ago. However, it could not be implemented as Congress lost the 1994 elections. But in 2004, within 58 days after returning to power, the then Congress government announced five percent reservation to Muslims but had to reduce it to four on the orders of the High Court. Nearly 20 lakh poor Muslims in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have benefitted in the last 16-17 years, he claimed.