Telangana government has requested the Centre to enhance funding given for agriculture and allied sectors in the State at least by 10 times as on an average the yearly support is only ₹800 crore now.
In a representation submitted to Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shobha Karandlaje, who is on a visit to Hyderabad, Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy said the State government had spent over ₹50,000 crore over the last four years for farmers’ security and investment support under Rythu Bima and Rythu Bandhu schemes.
In seven phases of investment support given under Rythu Bandhu, ₹43,037 crore amount was credited into the bank accounts of 60.84 lakh landholding farmers. Similarly, ₹3,017 crore was paid to the families of 60,340 farmers following their death, irrespective of the reason, at the rate of ₹5 lakh per deceased farmer’s family, under the Rythu Bima group life insurance scheme.
Under the PM-KISAN, 35.19 lakh farmers were given an assistance of ₹5,443.02 crore in Telangana so far.
He brought to the Union Minister’s notice that although Telangana’s geography was only 3.4% of the country’s total area, the cultivation of crops was going in 4.65% of the country’s extent in Telangana and its share in the production of foodgrains was 9.9%.
He appealed to the Union Minister to consider Telangana’s case as special, taking into consideration its success in the agriculture sector over the last seven years with the help of proactive policies of the State government and enhance funding at least by 10 times to the current support.
