The expected changes to the disbursement of Rythu Bandhu limiting it to cultivated land only are likely to come into effect from the next agricultural season if Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s comments are an indication.
The government’s intentions to discontinue the fund disbursal to certain sections were further indicated in the budget speech of Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Finance Bhatti Vikramarka where he questioned the blind distribution of taxpayers’ money to the lands held by real estate ventures.
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, who shared his views on the budget later with the media informally, questioned the rationale behind continuing the Rythu Bandhu scheme for land that is not cultivated. He said money was transferred to lands where roads were built years ago apart from hillocks and rocky terrain where there has been no cultivation.
The government plans to save about ₹3,000 crore if the non-cultivable lands are removed from the list of Rythu Bandhu beneficiaries. As per the present practice, the government is depositing ₹ 10,000 per acre per year and after changing the scheme’s name to Rythu Bharosa from the coming kharif season it plans to increase the amount to ₹15,000 per acre in the two seasons.
The Congress party before the elections had identified about 19 lakh acres that were being extended financial benefit under Rythu Bandhu despite they being uncultivable. These figures were arrived from the government records in the Dharani portal that reveals that about 1.51 lakh acres of agricultural land was available but only 1.32 lakh acres were under cultivation.
The Kisan Congress had argued that most of these lands were in the districts around Hyderabad city and where full commercial activity was on with real estate ventures and other businesses. These lands were not converted for commercial purpose. Some chunks of land in rural areas were hillocks.
All these lands despite being non-agricultural lands were receiving about ₹1,900 crore out of the ₹15,000 crore spent under the Rythu Bandhu scheme. The Kisan Congress had argued that genuine farmers should get financial assistance and not the real estate dealers.
With Mr. Bhatti Vikramarka’s comments in the Assembly during the budget presentation and later the Chief Minister Revanth Reddy questioning the real estate ventures getting Rythu Bandhu money, it is clear that the government is planning to conduct a field-level survey to identify the cultivable land both by the Revenue and Agriculture departments.
The survey is expected to be completed by the start of the kharif season and from then the Rythu Bharosa scheme of ₹7,500 per acre per crop season would be given but only to the genuine farmers.
