Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced on Sunday that he would not avail of the Rs 8,000 per acre per year that his government is handing out to farmers from April this year. Mr Rao made the announcement at the regional conference of Farmers’ Coordination Councils. The CM owns an 85-acre ‘farm’ in Erravelli near the city, making him eligible to claim Rs 6.8 lakh every year. This newspaper had reported the CM’s willingness to give up the subsidy in its issue dated January 15, 2018 titled, “KCR to give up agriculture subsidy of Rs 8,000”.
Mr Rao requested rich farmers like himself to follow suit so that the benefit reaches only the needy. “Those who want to opt out of the sop can do so. The government will not take back that amount. The amount thus saved will be deposited with the State Farmers’ Corporation, and will be used for the benefit of farmers,” Mr Rao said. He said the sop will cost the government Rs 12,000 crore per year which will be allocated in a special Agriculture Budget which is being introduced by the state government for the first time for 2018-19, and presented in the Budget session of the State Legislature in March.
Without explaining why well-off farmers required the handout, Mr Rao said that the recent land survey proved that there is 1.65 crore acres of agriculture land in Telangana and “all the farmers doing agriculture on these lands will get the benefit irrespective of whether they are big or small farmers or the extent of land they own.” The Chief Minister justified spending such a huge amount of taxpayers’ money on the whole farming sector, by saying that together with the Rs 8,000 per acre handout and the free power supply and timely supply of seeds and fertiliser, “farmers are expected to produce agriculture produce worth Rs 1.25 lakh crore by sowing two crops for the first time in Telangana, which is almost equal to the state Budget.
“The state’s economy will get stronger, and we get more money through taxes etc,” the Chief Minister said. “Some economists opposed this arguing that it’s a populist scheme and will drain the state exchequer. But I strongly dismissed their argument,” the Chief Minister told his audience.
