Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Bandi Sanjay Kumar urged the state government to release the pending Rs 4,000 crore interest arrears to self-help women groups (SHGs) under Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA).

In a letter addressed to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Sanjay said as the womenfolk across the country were celebrating the Rakhi Pournami festival, self-help group women belonging to DWCRA were in deep distress due to lack of any support from the state government.

“These women groups have been waiting for funds from the state government, but it has not been releasing them on time, resulting in severe distress among them. Many women members had taken bank loans hoping to get an interest rebate from the government, but there has been no response from the Centre,” he said.

There were 3,99,120 women, in self-help groups, under the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), comprising 43,29,058 members. Under the Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA), there were, in all, 1,81,225 members, the letter added.

“In the last eight years of inefficient and indifferent Telangana Rashtra Samithi regime, the DWCRA groups were totally paralysed putting the women members to untold miseries,” he said.

The arrears of the interest rebate to be paid by the state government to the SHGs under SERP and MEPMA have increased to nearly Rs 4,000 crore, the BJP leader stated.

“Though the state government claimed to have earmarked Rs 3,000 crore towards interest payment to women groups in 2021-22, it has not released the same. Similarly, in the present financial year 2022-23, the government allotted Rs 1,250 crore, but so far, not a penny was released,” the BJP president added.

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The state government should release Rs 4,000 crore dues to women groups towards interest payments, so that they would celebrate the Rakhi festival in a happy mood, Sanjay added.

(With inputs from ANI)