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Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao has called for statewide protests on Monday, August 17, alleging that the Congress government in Telangana was plotting to scrap the Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak schemes.

He claimed that the Congress was deliberately trying to scrap these schemes that supported lakhs of poor families and was using the High Court judgment as a pretext.

He questioned why the government, which pays huge amounts to private lawyers to argue for the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) or corruption cases against ministers, acted negligently in protecting the scheme related to girls’ rights.

The Telangana High Court had put a four-week stay on the two schemes on August 12 after the petitioner, Advocate Vijay Gopal, argued that the schemes were not backed by any law made by the state legislature.

Vijay Gopal brought to the court’s attention that, though the government had been directed to file a counter-affidavit during a previous hearing, it had failed to do so even after four weeks.

However, when the state again sought additional time, the court passed the interim order, adjourning the next hearing by four weeks. The next hearing is scheduled for September 9.

KTR has called for statewide protests at every constituency and mandal centre to “stop the conspiracy and expose Congress’s deceitful stance to the public.”

He stated that Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak are not just welfare schemes but programmes tied to the future and self-respect of poor families’ girls in Telangana.

He said that K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) had recognised the heavy financial burden of girls’ weddings in poor families right after Telangana’s formation and launched these schemes on October 2, 2014.

The scheme, which started with Rs 51,000 in financial aid, was gradually increased to Rs 75,116 and then to Rs 1,00,116. During KCR’s tenure, financial aid of Rs 13,000 crore was provided to families of about 13 lakh girls, KTR said.

Even during severe economic crises during the pandemic, the KCR government stood by poor girls through Kalyana Lakshmi, he said.

He said that the same Congress, which had promised a tola of gold for girls along with Kalyana Lakshmi during elections, is now trying to cancel the scheme instead of strengthening it after coming to power.