Investment Support Scheme: Farmers prefer cheques
Non-cultivable lands may not get Rs 4,000 dole: State
HYDERABAD: The Telangana state government, set to provide Rs 4,000 per acre per season to farmers under the Investment Support Scheme, has decided to request the Centre and the RBI to take steps to ensure sufficient liquidity in banks. This was to ensure that farmers could withdraw money without any hassle.
The government completed its survey on money disbursal methods among farmers and the preference was for the bank cheque format, though there was a demand for direct transfer of the amount into the bank account while some wanted cash payment.
The government decided to extend this scheme to farmers from the Kharif season. Nearly Rs 5,600 crore would have to be allocated for the scheme. In view of limited cash disbursement to states after demonetisation, the state government has decided to request Centre and RBI to take steps to ensure there is sufficient cash in banks.
A delegation led by finance minister Etala Rajender would be visiting New Delhito pursue the matter.
Elaborating details of the survey, agriculture secretary C. Parthasa-rathi said the views of nearly 63,000 farmers from 624 villages in 30 districts were collected. He said 31.58 per cent farmers preferred payment by cheques.
Around 27.5 per cent, mainly from Warangal (urban and rural), Rajanna Sircilla and Jangaon wanted the government to transfer the money directly into their bank accounts. Almost the same percentage was keen on cash payment. The survey details were communicated to the cabinet sub-committee formed to finalise modalities for the scheme.
Agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy said the scheme would be started from the Kharif season.
Following the exercise of purification of land records, it was found that cultivable land in the state was 1.42 crore acres and the number of farmers was 71.75 lakh.
“There is no cap on number of acres. According to our data, 97.2 per cent farmers have less than 10 acres of land. Suggestions were also made to exclude non-cultivable land from the scheme,” he said.