Andhra Pradesh chief minister and YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday launched a crop investment support scheme aimed at directly transferring an annual amount of Rs 13,500 into the bank accounts of farmers.
Originally proposed as the YSR Rythu Bharosa, named after Jagan’s father late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, the scheme has been integrated with the Centrally-sponsored scheme of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi and renamed as “YSR Bharosa-PM Kisan.”
Of the total amount of Rs 13,500, the farmers will get Rs 6,000 under the PM Kisan scheme. The amount will be given to farmers in three instalments which will have greater utility. The first instalment of Rs 7,500 will be deposited in their accounts in May, second instalment of Rs 4,000 in October and third instalment of Rs 2,000 in January.
Acknowledging the Central contribution to the scheme, the Jagan government used a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the publicity of the scheme.
Launching the scheme at the Vikrama Simhapuri University in Nellore on Tuesday, the chief minister reminded the people that during his padayatra before the elections, he had promised payment of Rs 50,000 to each farmer in a span of four years under Rythu Bharosa.
{{/usCountry}}Launching the scheme at the Vikrama Simhapuri University in Nellore on Tuesday, the chief minister reminded the people that during his padayatra before the elections, he had promised payment of Rs 50,000 to each farmer in a span of four years under Rythu Bharosa.
{{/usCountry}}“Later, we had a brainstorming with farmers’ associations and experts and decided to increase the package to Rs 67,500 and it is being paid eight months in advance. The scheme will benefit 54 lakh farmers,” he said.
Claiming that for the first time in the country, a crop investment support scheme is being extended to tenant farmers as well, Jagan said the scheme would be open till November 15 and eligible farmers, including tenant farmers, could register and claim the benefit.
Bharatiya Janata Party Andhra Pradesh unit president Kanna Lakshminarayana hailed the decision of the Jagan government to rename the YSR Rythu Bharosa scheme as YSR Rythu Bharosa-PM Kisan Yojana. “We are glad that the state government has given a matching grant to the Central scheme in order to implement it in the state with the name YSR Bharosa-PM Kisan scheme,” he said.
Lakshminarayana also demanded that all the centrally-sponsored schemes being implemented in the state should follow the same procedure with the Prime Minister’s picture and name attached to such schemes.