Telangana Jana Samiti chief Professor M. Kodandaram on Sunday hit out at the Telangana government's flagship scheme, Rythu Bandhu, and said that it was helping realtors instead of farmers.
Kodandaram was speaking to reporters in Warangal, where he suggested that the state government could have given ATM-like cards to the farmers, to purchase the required material for agriculture.
“The uncultivated land is the property of realtors who use it for business purposes. We have seen people coming in swanky SUVs to take Rythu Bandhu cheques. As a result of this, Rs 1,720 crore is going to realtors and non-land cultivating owners This is proof enough that there are loopholes in the scheme and we call upon the government to revise it and ensure that it benefits only the farmers.” he was quoted as saying.
"The data clearly shows that financial assistance was also given for uncultivated lands. This has benefited realtors and rich people who purchased large chunks of rural lands much in advance. This has defeated the very purpose of the scheme. It’s high time that the government plugged the loop holes in the scheme and extended the benefit to the really needy," he added.
Earlier this month, the Telangana government launched a new scheme in which the farmers in the state will get Rs 8,000 per acre each, every year, as crop investment support.
Launching the programme titled 'Rythu Bandhu', Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao claimed that Telangana is the first state in India to implement a farmer investment support scheme.
The government plans to spend Rs 12,000 crore every year under this scheme, benefiting 58 lakh farmers. The financial assistance will be for two crops each year.
The Chief Minister told a public meeting at Indira Nagar in Karimnagar district that under the first phase, the government has made Rs 6,000 crore available in the banks.
KCR, as Rao is popularly known, distributed cheques among the farmers to formally launch the scheme.
IANS inputs