The second phase of the Rythu Bandhu, the farmers investment support scheme, for the current financial year is likely to be implemented by the new government which will come to power after results for the Assembly elections are declared on December 3.
Amid talk that the State government is likely to advance the second phase for disbursing the assured ₹5,000 an acre to farmers before the elections, office of the Chief Electoral Officer, has not received any such request from the government so far. “No such request (advancing Rythu Bandhu) has been received,” a senior official told The Hindu.
The comment comes at a time when BRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has charged the Congress with creating obstacles in the implementation of Rythu Bandhu during the public meetings he addressed in some districts which the Congress strongly refuted.
Telangana Congress president A. Revanth Reddy said the party had in fact requested the election authority to direct the State government to complete implementation of direct benefit transfer schemes by November 2, a day ahead of issue of notification for the election. If the government was unable to credit the amounts before notification, the schemes should be implemented after the polling day, he said.
Meanwhile, the implementation of the prestigious scheme is set to pose a challenge to the new government in view of the financial constraints the State has been facing ever since the Union Finance Ministry had imposed restrictions on the borrowings. The government would need at least ₹7,500 crore for the second phase of Rythu Bandhu for which ₹15,075 crore had been allocated in the current year’s budget.
With the State inching closer to the limit on borrowings imposed by the Union Ministry, it will be a herculean task for the new government to raise the required financial resources to meet the commitment. The State’s capital receipts in the form of borrowings and other liabilities for the current year have been pegged at ₹38,234 crore of which, the State had already raised ₹31,333 crore till September-end.
With the committed implementation of a spree of welfare and developmental schemes posing additional burden on the exchequer, the State had to depend on financial accommodation facilities provided by the Reserve Bank of India for meeting its immediate commitments. According to the RBI bulletin, the State resorted to special drawing facility for 30 days out of 31 in August drawing ₹863.46 crore and another ₹1,306 crore through ways and means advances for 27 days. The State was in overdraft for 11 days raising ₹1,037 crore the same month.
