The State government is understood to have decided to go slow on its proposal to ask financially well off agricultural landowners to give up support under the first-of-its-kind Investment Support Scheme being launched next month.
The scheme envisages providing support of ₹ 4,000 per acre per season for all agricultural landholdings and over 10% of the beneficiaries under the investment support scheme fall under the medium and large category holdings. The government has decided to make sure that there is no insistence on landowners to give up the support amount during the distribution of cheques and passbooks starting May 10.
The government will keep the necessary forms at the gram sabhas that will be conducted as part of cheque/passbook distribution and giving up the support will purely be a voluntary affair. “Steps are being taken to keep funds ready for distribution irrespective of the landholding and financial status of the beneficiaries,” an official told The Hindu .
The development assumes significance as Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao himself volunteered to give up the support announced by the government and several ministers too followed suit. The decision comes after the recent conference of the district Collectors and senior officials convened by the Chief Minister to finetune the cheque/passbook distribution programme, where the issue was discussed in detail.
According to sources, several of the participants felt that any insistence on landowners with sound finances to give up the assured amounts could entail political implications. “From the political point of view, any insistence on beneficiaries to give up the benefit will give an opportunity to the Opposition parties to point a finger at the government,” the official said.
It was therefore decided not to take up any campaign or make any public appeals asking the beneficiaries to give up the benefit if they can afford.
