• By JE Business Desk
  • Wed, 28 Dec 2022 02:59 PM (IST)
  • Source:JND
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THE DISBURSEMENT of investment support given under the Rythu Bandhu scheme at Rs 5,000 per acre for the 10th successive crop season will begin on December 28. The amount for the 2022-23 Rabi season will be credited to the linked bank accounts of 70.54 lakh farmers from Wednesday.

Rythu Bandhu scheme, also known as the Farmer's Investment Support Scheme is a welfare programme by the Government of Telangana to support farmers’ investment to achieve two crops a year.

S. Niranjan Reddy, the Minister for Agriculture stated on Tuesday that a benefit of Rs 7,676.61 crore would be transferred to 70.54 lakh farmers with a total landholding of about 1,53,53,000 acres. The disbursement of the benefit for the current crop season would take the total amount given to farmers for taking up cultivation to Rs 65,559.28 crore for 10 phases or crop seasons.

Meanwhile, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha tweeted, “Today, marks the 10th season of #RythuBandhu Scheme where over 70 lakh farmers in Telangana will receive assistance of Rs.7,676.61 crore in total. KCR Garu has dreamt of an India where the farmers and poor are empowered, Telangana is living the dream which is now a reality.”

Transfer of the Rythu Bandhu amount would be for farmers with landholding up to one acre on day one and it would be in ascending order from 1-2 acres on day two, from 2 3 acres on day three and so on.

The scheme was announced by Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao at the Farmers Coordination Committee (Rythu Samanvaya Samithi) conference at Jayashankar Agriculture University on February 25, 2018. An allocation of Rs 12,000 crore was made in the 2018-19 state budget. It was launched on May 10, 2018, at Dharmarajpalli village in Karimnagar. 

The scheme is not without its detractors though. In January 2021, the Times of India reported citing state government estimates that there were roughly 13,000 farmers in Telangana who collectively owned more than 3.19 lakh acres.

On the other hand, Reddy alleged that BJP had no sincerity towards farmers and that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre had failed to conceive at least one clear policy for the benefit of farmers/agriculture during the last eight years.