The State government has accorded administrative sanction of up to ₹ 5 lakh each for 76 churches and church-run-institutions across the State for grant-in-aid towards construction and repairs under a Minorities Welfare Department scheme against proposals received by the district Collectors between 2016 and early 2019.
Principal Secretary to Govt. Md. Ilyas Rizvi issued a Government Order to this effect on Monday.
As part of the scheme, 66 churches and church-run-institutions would be given ₹5 lakh each and 10 others would be given less than ₹5 lakh for carrying out construction or repairs, renovations, construction of compound walls and others by the A.P. State Christian (Minorities) Corporation, the order states. The total grand-in-aid amounts to about ₹3.6 crore.
The Mandal Parishad Development Officers or Municipal Commissioners concerned would have to verify and ensure that the institution doesn’t violate any rules and works are completed in three months.
The churches recommended by the Collectors are from Krishna, Kurnool, Prakasam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Anantapur and Kadapa districts.
The scheme of supporting churches in carrying out repairs, maintenance, new construction and others was first introduced in 2002 and a sum of ₹30, 000 towards repairs and ₹1 lakh as a maximum permissible amount towards new constructions was announced.
Later the maximum permissible amount was enhanced to ₹3 lakh in 2016 and ₹5 lakh in 2018 by the then government.
