Telangana’s Tenant Farmers’ Demand Investment Support Under Rythu Bandhu Scheme
Image Coutesy: Telangana Today
As the Telangana government is celebrating the fourth state formation day on June 2, its recently launched Rythu Bandhu scheme – farmer’s investment support scheme – is being boasted through large-scale advertisements across the state. While the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government has been claiming that the “innovative” scheme would benefit the farmers from distress, several farmers’ organisations are arguing that the scheme has intrinsic flaws in it through which the real cultivators – tenant farmers and Adivasi farmers (those practicing ‘podu’ (shift) cultivation) – are going to be outrightly left behind by the government. Rythu Bandhu literally means farmers’ friend. The irony is that all the members of the nominated committees under this scheme, are chosen from the TRS party cadre.
On May 31, thousands of farmers held ‘Road Bandh’ protests across six districts – Karimnagar, Warangal (urban), Warangal (rural), Mahbubabad, Kothagudem and Khammam – demanding the government to extend Rythu Bandhu scheme benefits and comprehensive support (remunerative prices and debt relief) for the neglected tenant farmers and Adivasi farmers. The protests were jointly organised by farmers’ organisations including Telangana Rythu JAC, Rythu Swarajya Vedika and Telangana Rashtra Rythu Sangam. Political parties CPI, CPI(M), CPI (ML-ND) and Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS) supported the protests. Reportedly hundreds of protesting farmers were arrested at various places.
Rythu Bandhu Scheme
On May 10, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao launched the Rythu Bandhu scheme under which the state government is providing investment support of Rs 4,000 per acre, per season, for every farmer. The government has begun distributing Rs 4000 per acre in this rabi season. The government had allocated Rs 12,000 crores in the 2017-18 budget for this scheme, which is said to benefit a total of 58.3 lakh farmers in the state. For the implementation of this scheme, the government had set up ‘Rythu Samanvaya Samithis’- farmers’ coordination committees at village, mandal, district and state levels, whose members are nominated by the state ministers. Although the government notified that these committee members are required to be farmers, all the members nominated for these committees are chosen from TRS party cadre.
With 15 members in every village committee, 24 members in every mandal and district committees and a 42-member state committee, a total of 1,61,000 members of these Rythu Samanvaya Samithis are composed of members from TRS cadre. When the opposition parties questioned the composition of these committees, the CM announced in assembly session, in November 2017, that his government would choose members only from his party.
By nominating TRS party members, government funds are being used for TRS campaigning, opined Telakapalli Ravi, senior journalist and political analyst. Speaking to Newsclick, Ravi said: “The Rythu Bandhu scheme did not even recognize the real cultivators – tenant farmers – as farmers by denying investment support for them. It is ironical that the Tenancy Act, was enacted in Hyderabad state in 1950, TRS government in the newly formed state is denying their rights as farmers. Furthermore, the scheme is beneficial for only the large and medium scale farmers. The marginal farmers who are about 62 % of the beneficiaries have only 39 lakh acres of land, whereas 3% of large-scale farmers have about 30 lakh acres of land.”
Kondal, the representative of Rythu Swarajya Vedika, said that the farmer’s distress is higher among the tenant farmers. “There are more than 16 lakh tenant farmers in the state whose livelihood is completely dependent on the agriculture sector. While the government has denied to recognize them as farmers, the government funds are being misused with the appointment of TRS cadre into the nominated committees.” He further added that the government must enact the Licensed Cultivators Act, 2011, and ensure the rights of the tenant farmers.
“Most of the small and marginal farmers lease agriculture land from landlords and practice cultivation. With Rythu Bandhu scheme, the real cultivators are neglected and the rich landlords are benefitting” Kondal said.
Get the latest reports & analysis with people's perspective on Protests, movements & deep analytical videos, discussions of the current affairs in your Telegram app. Subscribe to NewsClick's Telegram channel & get Real-Time updates on stories, as they get published on our website.
