Telangana’s Rythu Bandhu showed way to Centre

Hyderabad, Feb 1 (IANS) Telangana's Rythu Bandhu scheme showed the way to the Centre, which on Friday announced the PM Kisan Yojna to provide income support to farmers.

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal in his Interim Budget announced the scheme for direct cash transfer to small farmers. Every farmer owning less than two hectares of land will get Rs 6,000 per year in three equal instalments.

It was Telangana, India's youngest state, which came out with the investment support scheme last year as part of its measures to transform the agriculture sector. It is aimed at taking care of the initial investment by the farmer so that he doesn't have to approach private lenders.

However, under Rythu Bandhu, farmers irrespective of their land holding are getting Rs 8,000 per acre annually, at the rate of Rs 4,000 per acre per crop.

Launched in May last year by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government, the scheme has so far benefited 58 lakh farmers. In the Budget for 2018-19, the state had set aside Rs 12,000 crore for this scheme.

Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan had noted last month that Rythu Bandhu not only found its place in the national agenda but also won appreciation from the UN.

To ensure that benefits of Rythu Bandhu reach the actual beneficiaries, a comprehensive programme for purification, rectification and update of revenue records was taken up.

Under the programme, ownership of 94 per cent of lands was determined and passbooks were issued to farmers.

The only aspect of Rythu Bandhu which has come under criticism is that tenant farmers are not entitled for the benefit.