Crediting of investment support under the flagship Rythu Bandhu scheme gathered momentum on the second day on Wednesday, with ₹1,234.10 crore released into the accounts of 16.32 lakh farmers covering an extent of 24.68 lakh acres.
The government has credited ₹586.65 crore into the accounts of 19.98 lakh farmers covering 11.73 lakh acres on Tuesday. This would take the total amount credited in the first two days to ₹1,820.75 crore benefitting 36.3 lakh farmers owning 36.41 lakh acres across the State.
Agriculture Minister S. Niranjan Reddy said that the government has provided an investment support of ₹50,448 crore in eight phases since the launch of Rythu Bandhu and may provide another ₹7,508 crore during the current round helping 68.1 lakh farmers covering 1.50 crore acres of land. He expressed concern over the false propaganda launched against Rythu Bandhu and said that the government was committed to fulfil its promise on the scheme.
He criticised the Central Government for not fulfilling the promises made to farmers. The policies of the Central Government led to doubling the input costs for farmers in contrast to the BJP’s promise of doubling their incomes. The BJP government had to beat a hasty retreat and take back the ‘anti-farmer’ legislations it had brought in following the sustained agitation by farmers.
The Centre had failed to implement several other promises and States like Gujarat, the native of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, withdrew from the Fasal Bima Yojana as the premium borne by farmers was much higher than the compensation assured under the scheme. The Centre was raising several queries when it came to purchasing paddy from the State at a time when the TS government was allocating 11.5% of the budgetary resources for agriculture sector, which was highest in the country and much higher than the national average of 6.5%.
“The measures launched by TS government expose who is working in favour of farmers and who is serving the interests of the corporates,” he averred, adding that the BJP government was trying to hoodwink farmers with its false claims on the sector. Mr. Reddy recalled that the Centre was due to release ₹1,129.93 crore grants announced by XIII Finance Commission, ₹817.61 crore (XIV FC) and ₹1,103.70 crore (XV FC).
This was in addition to ₹1,350 crore pending under the backward regions grant fund and ₹2,247 crore GST dues as well as another ₹454 crore funds pertaining to Centrally-sponsored schemes that were credited into the account of neighbouring AP. “The Centre should release dues amounting to ₹7,183.71 crore to the State,” he said. The State had contributed ₹3.65 lakh crore in the form of taxes to the Central pool, but had received ₹1.68 lakh crore as devolution from the Centre.
