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Parties woo farmers with promise of sops ahead of Telangana elections
Congress has promised, as part of its six guarantees announced on September 17, to extend the Rythu Bandhu scheme even for tenant farmers
As the electioneering in Telangana for the assembly elections scheduled to be held on November 30 is gradually gaining momentum, all the three major political parties – the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – have started wooing the farmers to garner their votes.
According to the figures available with the state agriculture department, there are around 5.6 million farmers in the state with landholdings registered in their name as per the Dharani portal.
In May 2018, the BRS government led by chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) announced a major populist scheme – Rythu Bandhu, under which each farmer, irrespective of their landholding, would get an amount of ₹8,000 per acre per year in two instalments of ₹4,000 each – for Kharif and Rabi seasons, for purchase of farm inputs like seeds, fertilisers, pesticides etc.
The BRS also announced another scheme called Rythu Bima, under which families of farmers who died of distress, suffering heart attacks or by suicides, would be provided insurance to avoid situations such as crop failure or crop loss due to natural calamities.
The schemes fetched huge mileage to the BRS (then Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS) in the December 2018 elections, as the money was directly credited into the accounts of farmers through direct benefit transfer (DBT) method, weeks before the announcement of election schedule.
Before the 2019 Parliament elections in April 2019, KCR increased the amount to be paid under Rythu Bandhu scheme. Though it did not get any major political gains to the BRS, the farmers became a solid vote bank for the party.
However, the Rythu Bandhu scheme also drew a criticism from various quarters. It was applicable only to registered farmers but not tenant farmers. Even rich and big farmers, who owned large tracts of lands and farmhouses were getting ₹10,000 per acre per year, while tenant farmers who were cultivating at the lands taken on lease from big farmers were not getting anything.
According to a recent study by Rythu Swarjya Vedika, a non-governmental organisation working on farmers’ issues, there are another 2.2 million people who work as tenant farmers and are not recognised by the state government.
Now that the elections to the Telangana state assembly are round the corner, the Congress has promised, as part of its six guarantees announced on September 17, to extend the Rythu Bandhu scheme even for tenant farmers.
Renaming the scheme as Rythu Bharosa, the Congress announced that the party, if voted to power, would pay ₹15,000 annually to both farmers owning lands and tenant farmers. It also promised ₹12,000 annually for agricultural labourers and a ₹500 bonus for growing paddy crops.
Realising that the Congress has gained an edge over its scheme, the BRS, in its election manifesto announced by KCR on October 15, promised an increase in the amount in the Rythu Bandhu scheme from ₹10,000 to ₹16,000 per year in a phased manner. The party, however, has conveniently avoided to mention tenant farmers.
In October 2020, the chief minister launched a new portal called – Dharani, where all land records are digitised after a comprehensive survey, which was aimed at ensuring the benefits of Rythu Bandhu and other schemes, are availed by genuine farmers.
However, the initiative attracted largescale complaints by farmers, as they alleged a lot of irregularities had taken place in recording of land details at the grassroots level. There were allegations that lands belonging to farmers, who had been cultivating them for decades, were registered in the name of others, due to manipulations in the revenue records.
The Congress has promised that if it is voted to power in the upcoming elections, it will do away with the Dharani portal and restore the old system. “In the name of Dharani portal, lands of the poor were usurped by the local BRS leaders. We shall revoke the system,” Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said at a rally held at Jagtial on Friday.
The BRS is making a strong pitch to continue the Dharani portal system. “The portal has streamlined the revenue records, but the Congress wants to bring back the age-old corrupt revenue regime. The people should throw the Congress party into Bay of Bengal,” KCR said at a public rally at Siddipet on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the BJP has not yet come up with its election manifesto. But the party leaders are claiming that they would also enhance the limit under PM Kisan Yojana (similar to Rythu Bharosa) from the present ₹6,000 per year to ₹10,000 per year.
However, the party is hoping to win over the votes of turmeric farmers of Nizamabad and Karimnagar districts with the announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a public rally in Mahabubnagar on October 1, that the Centre would set up a national turmeric board at Nizamabad, a long pending demand of the farmers in the state.
“The turmeric board will definitely fetch a big mileage to the BJP, as it will not only fetch a remunerative price to the turmeric farmers, but also provide storage, marketing and exporting facilities,” BJP parliament member Dharmapuri Arvind said.
