Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has earned praise from the farmers of neighbouring Maharashtra for his newly introduced farmer investment subsidy scheme – Rythu Bandhu. Distressed Maharashtra farmers living in the villages bordering Telangana made an appeal to the CM asking him to integrate their villages into Telangana so that they too could avail the benefits, according to News 18.
A week ago, a forum of sarpanches – Sarpanch Sanghatan Dharmabad, comprising sarpanches from 40 villages from Nanded district, Maharashtra shared their ordeal over the poor farmer policies in Maharashtra and expressed their wish to be integrated into Telangana. Under the leadership of Baburao Ganpathrao, leader of the forum, they gave a representation to Nizamabad MLA Goverdhan Baji Reddy sharing their admiration for the Telangana CM and made an appeal to include them in the state.
They further requested an appointment to meet Nizamabad MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha, who is also the daughter of the CM.
Rythu Bandhu is a farmer investment subsidy scheme, a first-of-its-kind agriculture scheme that will benefit farmers. As per the scheme, the government gives an amount of Rs 4,000 per acre to the farmer before the crop as investment.
According to the government, a total of 57.33 lakh farmers will benefit from the scheme as it will help them in buying pesticides and other materials necessary for agriculture. The government has already distributed the land passbooks through Revenue and other departments.
The government plans to spend Rs 12,000 crore every year under this scheme by providing financial assistance of Rs 8,000 for two crops each year.
The Chief Minister at a public meeting in Indira Nagar, Karimnagar district announced that under the first phase, the government has made Rs 6,000 crore available in the banks.
While several farmers have appreciated the scheme, critics and the opposition parties have criticised the scheme as it benefits only land-owning farmers and not tenant farmers, who require this scheme the most. According to them, 13% of the agricultural land in the state is cultivated by tenant farmers.
Among the several politicians who criticised the CM for splurging funds on the rich land-owning farmers, the latest to attack KCR was Telangana Jana Samiti chief Professor M Kodandaram.
Kodandram said that the flagship scheme of the government was helping realtors instead of farmers. Alleging that Rs 1,720 crore from the scheme was going to realtors and non-land cultivating owners, he asked the government to revise the scheme and ensure that it benefitted only the farmers.
KCR, as the CM is popularly known, distributed cheques to farmers to formally launch the scheme.