The Congress Government in Telangana which has promised to give recognition to tenant farmers under Rythu Bharosa, one of the six guarantees of the party, is now faced with challenges in the implementation of the promise as it has to take up the identification of tenant farmers of lands.
The Government, according to experts in land laws, has three options before it – implementation of the Andhra Pradesh Land Licensed Cultivators Act enacted by the then Congress Government in 2012, enact a new law giving rights to tenants or explore new options for providing the assured support to tenants.
The development assumes significance as the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Government headed by former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao refused to recognise tenants as cultivators and extended the benefits of Rythu Bandhu and other schemes to land owners. According to Nalsar University professor and land laws expert M. Sunil Kumar, 14 per cent of the land, around 25 lakh acres, in the State is in the hands of tenants.
