T’gana briefs Centre on pro-farmer scheme

The principle secretary of the Telangana government gave a detailed presentation on the pro-farmer Rythu Bandhu scheme before a group of ministers in Delhi on Tuesday.

As part of the scheme, which will be rolled out in the third week of April, cheques will be distributed among farmers. The exercise will continue till May end so as to help the farmers buy seeds, pesticides and fertilisers before the commencement of Kharif season in the first week of June.

“It appears the Centre is impressed with our scheme and asked me to explain to a group of ministers the modalities of implementing the same. I told them how we identified the genuine beneficiaries through revamping of revenue records, digitisation of land records, assessment of a farmer’s financial requirement to purchase agriculture inputs etc,” the principle secretary of the agriculture department C Parthasarathy said.

According to the estimates of the agriculture department, the total expenditure on the scheme would be around ₹5,685 crore per season. “We have identified around 7.2 million farmers after the revision of land records. They would be given ₹4,000 per acre each during Kharif as well as Rabi seasons,” the official said. The state government earmarked ₹12,000 crore for the Rythu Bandhu scheme in the state’s annual budget for 2018-19.

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