Telangana chief minister turns Santa Claus

For the first time, Telangana government, under the stewardship of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, has accorded the status of a state festival to Christmas. Apart from organising Christmas feast at 195 chrurcheslocations as well as several orphanages and old age homes across the state, the government has arranged for distribution of gift packets of clothes to nearly 2.05 lakh poor personsfamilies.The government has declared general holidays for two days--Christmas and Boxing Day--on December 25 and 26.
During Christmas last year, Telangana government had organised a felicitation function for eminent Christians at the High Tea hosted by the chief minister. In all, 10 prominent Christians, who excelled in different fields and rendered exemplary services in social work, medicare, education, literary pursuits, fine artstheatre etc were honoured and provided cash awards of Rs 20,000 each in recognition of their services to the society. Moreover, on December 19 last year, the state cabinet accorded sanction for construction of Christian Bhavan in Hyderabad at a cost of Rs 10 crore. The announcement was made in response to the demand from the sizeable Christian community in the state capital for an exclusive hub for their community activities as well as for training of Christian youth, conduct of marriages and other social and cultural functions, Christmas and New Year celebrations etc.
The government allotted two acres of land for the Christian Bhavan and constituted a committee for supervising the construction of this community centre. Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana are home to Christian minority community since the early 19th century . In fact, the twin cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad have numerous churches with their distinct architecture and splendour. Most of these historical churches were built during the British era. Secunderabad has far more churches than its twin--Hyderabad--as it functioned as a cantonment under direct British rule from 1806 to 1947. The Medak cathedral in Medak town is the largest church in Telangana and it has been the cathedral church of the Diocese of Medak of the Church of South India. It was consecrated on Christmas Day in 1924.
There are 4,47,124 Christians in Telangana, as per the 2011 census. Rangareddy district has 1,44,037 Christians, followed by Hyderabad with 87,522. Almost 52 percent Christians in Telangana live in these two districts. The GHMC area alone has 1,92,660 Christians. There are smaller communities of Christians in Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Medak, Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Warangal and Khammam. As many as 13 major denominations besides some independent churches have their adherents in Telangana, particularly Hyderabad and environs. While successive chief ministers in erstwhile united AP hosted high tea for eminent Christians on the eve of Christmas and organised felicitation functions for eminent Christians, the credit for introducing welfare sche mes for them goes to late Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy . The AP State Christian (Minorities) Finance Corporation was incorporated in November 2008 and 15 percent of the budgetary allocations under Minorities Welfare were earmarked for Christian community from the financial year 2009-10. In July 2008, a scheme was introduced for providing financial assistance for pilgrimage to the Holy Land, covering Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Jordan River, Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee.
After the formation of Te langana in June 2014, the TRS government has stepped up the allocations for various schemes for Christian minority. Telangana State Christian (Minorities) Finance Corporation has been constituted to assist weaker sections of Christians for their economic development and welfare. The corporation provides subsidy for financial assistance through banks and implements various welfare measures.
Exclusive allocations for Christians include Rs 10 crore for welfare schemes, Rs 19 crore for subsidy for bank-linked self-employment schemes, Rs 3 crore for repairs and maintenance of churches and burial grounds and Rs two crore for pilgrimage to Holy Land (Jerusalem).
Besides, substantial allocations are earmarked for Christians under the pre-matric and post-matric scholarship and fees reimbursement schemes, overseas study scheme for minorities, and central scholarship and free coaching schemes. On the lines of Dawat-e-Iftar and distribution of clothes arranged for Muslims across the state during Ramzan in July this year, the TRS regime has rolled out the Christmas feast on a massive scale now. The government released Rs 15.37 crores, including Rs 4.10 crore for organising Christmas feast and Rs 11.27 crore for distribution of clothes to the poor at 195 locations in Hyderabad and other districts. Since the elections to Telangana legislative council are being held in nine districts, the Government obtained clearance of Election Commission of India for organising the Christmas-2015 feast on a grand scale.
(The author is an MLC and a journalist)