Hyderabad: Chandrababu Naidu government, which is making all-out efforts to improve the lot of Backward Classes, is planning to bring a separate budget to be presented couple of days after the main budget.Senior officials of nearly 30 departments of the Andhra Pradesh government are spending sleepless nights to give shape to the ruling TDP government’s ambitious attempt to prove its commitment to the BCs.

Keeping an eye to endear the considerable chunk of BC population, the government has proposed to come up with a separate plan for the BCs. “This is an attempt on the lines of a separate SC and ST Sub-Plan, which is already in force,” according to sources in the planning department.

While the government’s intention of coming up with a separate budget is understandable, the officials are facing several problems in finalizing it. The reason is that for the first time the government has circulated a file to all departments asking for details of various programmes, schemes or projects being implemented either with state or central funds, or with matching grants from the both.

They were taken aback when departments like agriculture, co-operation and animal husbandry, claimed that except loans they have nothing specific, as several subjects falling under its preview have been given to the AP Backward Classes Cooperative Finance Corporation.  

Similarly, irrigation, environment, forests, science & technology, archeology, information technology, electronics and communications and rain shadow areas development have also understood to have replied to the finance department that they have nothing specific and exclusively meant for BCs.

Following this, a senior official pointed out that the only way to come up with a separate budget proposals for BCs on the lines of SC and ST Sub-Plan is to pick the existing components of different schemes and projects supported by the State as well as the Centre and bring them under one umbrella to have a separate budget for BCs. Hope this idea works out to the benefit of the BCs and the state government.