The statement made by Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao a couple of days ago that the Rythu Bandhu scheme, providing Rs 8,000 per acre to each farmer every year, will not be given to tenant farmers at any cost, is going to prove counter-productive to the TRS in the next elections.
KCR has made it clear that there is no chance of extending it to tenant farmers.
According to official estimates, more than 60 per cent of the land is now being cultivated by tenant farmers, as the original farmers have mostly migrated to cities in search of jobs and education.
Since it is the tenant farmers who are making investments in agriculture, the real benefit should go to them and not the land owners who have stopped going into fields.
The Congress party has already taken up the cudgels on behalf of tenant farmers in the implementation of the Rythu Bandhu scheme.
Telangana Congress party spokesman Sravan Dasoju strongly condemned the stand taken by KCR on not giving investment support to tenant farmers as part of Rythu Bandhu scheme.
He said KCR was wrongly trying to link land ownership with the investment support scheme.
He said it was ridiculous to say that farmers might claim ownership of land if they are given support in carrying out agricultural activities.
He said there were nearly 13 lakh farmers who do cultivation on 66 lakh acres of land. By denying them required financial support, KCR government was doing gross injustice.
Further, he said that the TRS Government was only focussed on benefitting the rich farmers while neglecting the poor.
He said those having huge chunks of land got lakhs of rupees under Rythu Bandhu while those owning small lands got very small amounts.
He said about 1.5 lakh farmers got cheques of only Rs. 100 each.
He said that the State Government bring in legislation to extend financial assistance to tenant farmers while making it clear that the assistance does not grant them any ownership rights over the land.
Sravan also expressed wonder over the Chief Minister's claim that the State Government was not having the statistics related to tenant farmers.
He said government has data of Intensive Household Survey where people have clearly defined their profession.
Further, the government has recently conduct land purification drive which clearly demarcates a land owner and tenant farmer.
