Hyderabad: The Telangana state government, reeling under a severe financial crunch, caught between the devil and deep sea, has been forced to delay payments to farmers under the Rythu Bandhu scheme. The government was forced to make the extremely unpopular choice because otherwise, it would have been unable to pay salaries to government employees for month of October.
Sources told Deccan Chronicle that in view of the funds crisis the government is facing, it has asked the finance department to delay payments for Rythu Bandhu and ensure that employees get salaries without delay for month of October. The TRS government had introduced Rythu Bandhu to provide financial assistance to farmers to the tune of Rs 5,000 per acre for the Kharif and Rabi seasons.
The state government had allocated Rs 12,000 crore (Rs 6,000 crore each for Kharif and Rabi) in 2019-20 budget for the scheme, but the government is currently not in a position to make payments due to shortage of funds, sources in finance department disclosed.
According to finance officials, around Rs 2,300 crore are required to pay salaries each month. Several contractors, who have been awarded project works worth below Rs 50 crore, are suffering because their bills payments have been stopped for more than a year now.
In fact, the government had provided financial assistance under Rythu Bandhu to 40 lakh farmers during Kharif season to a total tune of Rs 4,400 crore, but around 14 lakh farmers are yet to receive the Kharif payments too.
Sources in the agriculture department said the state government has proposed to put a ceiling of 10 acres to extend financial assistance under the scheme in view of criticism from all cross sections of people that rich farmers were benefiting. Sources estimate that limiting financial assistance to 10 acres would save aro-und Rs 2,000 crore a year.
According to agriculture department officials, there were 50.91 lakh farmers in Telangana. Out of total number of farmers, around 7. 39 per cent have a landholding of less than a acre.
Another 15.62 per cent hold between one to two acres. Another 16.67 per cent have a holding between three to four acres, while 13.59 per cent hold between four to five acres, 21.10 per cent hold over five acres but below ten acres, whereas 10.85 per cent farmers have more ten acres.
Reacting to alleged delay in payments of Rythu Bandhu, Mr T. Jeevan Reddy, senior Congress leader and MLC, said that last year due to Assembly election in December 2018, the TRS government had deposited financial aid in October for the Rabi and deposited funds in June 2018 for the Kharif season.
Mr Jeevan Reddy alleged that though November was approaching, there was no clarity on payments for the Rabi season.
Without assessing the effect of the economic slowdown on state finances, the government had made allocations in budget for Rythu Bandhu, Mr Jeevan Reddy said, demanding that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao must give clarity on payments under the scheme.
Dr K. Laxman, the BJP state president, alleged that the TRS had lured voters of Huzurnagar in the recent byelections in name of making payments to farmers under Rythu Bandhu.
Mr Rao was used to making contradictory statements before and after every election, Dr Laxman said. Stating that the Centre was making payments under the PM Kisan Samman Yojana in three instalments, he asked why the TRS government was unable to do so.
Mr Ch Chandra Reddy, a farmer from Karimnagar, said that due to delay in monsoon and rains afterwards, Kharif crops had been damaged.
He told this correspondent that farmers had not received the first installment under the loan waiver scheme till date. If the Rythu Bandhu is also delayed for Rabi, farmers in Telangana would be in big trouble.
