The much-publicised scheme Rythu Bandhu launched by Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday is considered to be a game-changer in the state politics in the run-up to the state assembly elections scheduled in April 2019.
The scheme envisages payment of ₹8,000 per acre per year to each farmer in two spells of ₹4,000 each in Kharif and Rabi seasons. The scheme will benefit 5.8 million farmers owning 1.39 crore acres across the state. In all, the government has earmarked ₹12,000 crore for the scheme, official estimates said.
While KCR launched the scheme in Karimnagar district, his cabinet colleagues and officials distributed cheques and newly-designed pattadar passbooks across the state.
“Rythu Bandhu scheme is going to change the fate of the farming community in the state and has shown a new direction to the entire country. What the Congress could not do in five decades, we have done in four years,” the TRS president said.