Telangana Govt exploring options to ensure all genuine small and marginal farmers are benefitted by crop loan waiver

Telangana Government explores options for crop loan waiver, focusing on small and marginal farmers, exempting certain groups from benefits.

As the deadline for the implementation of crop loan waiver up to ₹2 lakh is approaching fast, Telangana Government is exploring various options to see that all eligible farmers, especially small and marginal farmers with holdings of less than five acres, benefited from the scheme.

The Government is actively considering the PM Kisan Samman Yojana guidelines wherein elected representatives, State and Central Government employees and tax payers are exempted from the benefit. There are over 40 lakh farmers across the State as per government estimates and implementation of PM Kisan Samman Yojana is expected to bring the number down to around 32 lakh.

Steps have been initiated to gather information pertaining to eligible farmers at the grassroots level and Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy is learnt to be eliciting the views of the elected representatives as well as experts and economists on the modalities that should be put in place for effective implementation of the promise.

The State Cabinet meeting scheduled to be held in Hyderabad on Friday is likely to discuss the various aspects involved in the implementation of crop loan waiver and prepare a road map accordingly. The Chief Minister is reported to be keen on knowing about the number of farmers who will benefit from crop loan waiver, the actual number in the event of imposing restrictions to ensure only genuine farmers benefit and the feedback from farmers about how the waiver would benefit them.

The Chief Minister is said to be getting information from the field level about eligible farmers besides eliciting information from the party leaders who are meeting him, on the modalities that should be put in place. Economists and agriculture experts are learnt to have suggested that the well-intentioned scheme should benefit genuine small and marginal farmers instead of allowing well to do farmers to reap bigger benefits leaving smaller share to marginal farmers.

They reportedly cited the implementation of Rythu Bandhu by the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Government which helped farmers holding vast extent of land, including those given to tenants, reap maximum benefits from the scheme. Rythu Bandhu envisaging crediting of ₹10,000 an acre investment support to farmers was implemented on a saturation mode as a result of which farmers holding major extent of lands benefited the most while small and marginal farmers had to put up with small amounts that were credited into their accounts.

The previous Government had altogether set aside tenant farmers who comprise a significant chunk of the Rythu Bandhu scheme, giving rise to dissatisfaction among them. The Government is said to be considering implementation of the same guidelines for the Rythu Bharosa scheme envisaging crediting of ₹15,000 an acre every year as investment support for deserving farmers.