Telangana government starts exercise to identify genuine beneficiaries of Rythu Bharosa

State government investigates Rythu Bharosa scheme for genuine beneficiaries, addressing misuse and ensuring support for small farmers.

The State government has started the exercise to identify genuine beneficiaries under the Rythu Bharosa, the farmers’ investment support scheme, under which it had promised to give assistance of ₹7,500 an acre to all eligible farmers.

The government has constituted a Cabinet sub-committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and comprising Ministers Tummala Nageswara Rao, D. Sridhar Babu and Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy to hold discussions with the stakeholders at the grassroots level for evolving guidelines for effective implementation of the investment support to farmers. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, who announced the constitution of the Cabinet panel, said it was constituted in the light of different versions being aired on the implementation of Rythu Bandhu, the flagship scheme of the previous BRS government.

“Several versions are claiming that landlords and farmhouse owners residing in the upmarket Jubilee Hills area received the benefits under the scheme,” the Chief Minister said. True to his claims, enquiries conducted by the Agriculture Department about the beneficiaries of Rythu Bharosa (Rythu Bandhu during the BRS regime) are said to have revealed that the benefit had been extended to several ineligible people.

Several big farmers including landlords owning vast extents of lands benefitted by the scheme as the previous Government has completely set aside the tenant farmers. With no fixed guidelines for strictly restricting the investment support to lands under cultivation, the benefit is said to be extended to fallow lands, lands which were not under cultivation as well as those for which owners had applied for conversion as real estate ventures.

Coupled with this were the alleged lapses in Dharani portal which are said to have denied the benefit to genuine farmers thereby resulting in unrest among sections of them. “The Agriculture department is on the job,” a senior Finance department official said when asked about the reports of alleged misuse of the provision.

The Congress government is said to be confirming the enquiry reports received from the grassroots level so as to assess the extent of benefit accrued by the well-to-do farmers and others at the expense of farmers. The development, sources said, would enable the government to reach out to genuine small and marginal farmers providing them with investment support. At the same time, it would ensure that there is no wastage of public money in the name of Rythu Bharosa.