Hyderabad: Even though the minority department officials have gone into an overdrive to implement the “Shaadi Mubarak” scheme, around 79 per cent of the Rs100-crore budget approved by the Telangana government remains unutilised.

“Inadequacy of staff post bifurcation turned out to be a big challenge for us. Our work force is nearly 30 per cent deficient,” said Omer Jaleel, special secretary for the Minority Welfare Department. He added, “Officials are putting in extra hours to expedite processing of applications.”

With barely 40 days left to utilise nearly Rs 79 crore in the kitty, the department is planning to upscale awareness activities. “We will print 10,000 informative posters of the scheme and put them at suitable places to raise awareness,” he said.

Ghiasuddin Babukhan, who is assisting the department with the scheme implementation, said, “Substantial ground work is being done to create awareness.”

“We have commissioned 40 people to assist the potential beneficiaries who are either illiterate or unaware of the scheme. The biggest hurdle is the lack of proper documents,” he said.

Telangana deputy CM Mahmood Ali said, “The CM has already ordered to pass a GO which will solve the problem of missing identify proofs. “The GO will allow applicants to produce an authorised declaration instead of the birth certificate,” he said.

He also assured that “the unutilised budget will be rolled on to the next fiscal year and more officials will be commissioned.” Against the target of 20,000 marriages in a six-month duration originally planned by the Minority Welfare Department, only 4,204 applications have been received. The department claims to have wired Rs 51,000 each to the bank accounts of 2,357 beneficiaries.

From the SC and ST community, for whom the scheme is labeled “Kalayana Lakshmi”, 2,964 and 1,402 applications have been received with 1,355 and 650 sanctions respectively.