Several tenant farmers who came from districts have demanded the Telangana government to extend investment support of ₹ 4,000 per acre under the Rythu Bandhu scheme and help the tenant farmers caught in debt trap.
The tenant farmers attended the State level Tenant Farmers Meeting organised by All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) here on Tuesday a day after the farmers associations staged demonstrations in front of Collectorates in 21 districts on April 16 demanding investment support to the actual cultivators. They later staged a demonstration in front of Office of Commissioner, Agriculture.
Presiding over the meeting, three tenant farmers - Amarlapudi Ramu, a Podu farmer, Banoth Nehru who leased endowment land, both from Kothagudem district and woman tenant farmer Maroni from Turkapalli mandal of Yadadri district, said that Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao had been claiming that they would help farmers come out of debt trap by extending them investment support. But this financial assistance should be extended to the tenant farmers who were actual cultivators and investing on inputs.
Ramu said that majority of farmers cultivating lands were tenant farmers and there were another five lakh Podu farmers and of them two lakh Podu farmers were also given pattas under the Forest Rights Act. But the TRS government had been pushing away Podu farmers in the name of Haritha Haram from their patta lands. Both the forest and police departments were harassing Podu farmers who had been cultivating cotton, maize and red gram crops for years and destroying their crops. The government wanted to give ₹8,000 per acre in a year to title deed owners while tenant farmers who were cultivating the land by facing several hardships were being left high and dry.
Woman tenant farmer Maroni said that she had been cultivating leased land for the last five years but it was the land owner who would get crop loss compensation and assistance. She demanded that tenant farmers be given Loan Eligibility Cards and investment support of ₹.4,000 per acre.
Banoth Nehru said that ₹ 4,000 per acre was hardly enough when overall expenditure was about ₹ 18,000 to ₹ 20,000. Without remunerative price, compensation for crop loss, it would not address farmers’ problems. The Rythu Bandhu scheme was in fact being used to influence farmers to support TRS in elections, he alleged.
Family members of tenant farmers who committed suicide unable to clear the loan and continuous crop loss recounted their miserable plight with no support from government even as 60 per cent of those farmers who committed suicides were tenant farmers.
Anitha of Devarakonda mandal of Nalgonda and Kavitha of Nalgonda said their husbands committed suicide as crops failed and they were unable to clear loans but forced to give lease amount to land owners. With no identify cards for tenant farmers, no access to bank loans or subsidies from Telangana government, hundreds of tenant farmers were ending their lives every year.
Farmers associations leaders V.Kirankumar, Pasya Padma, K.Sajaya, Venkata Reddy and others demanded implementation of Licensed Cultivators Act (2011) and issue of loan and other benefits eligibility cards to tenant farmers and prevent their suicides.
Published - April 18, 2018 12:34 am IST
