CM’s promise of crop loss to all farmers makes identifying tenant farmers a critical task

Following launch of Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bima schemes the government has refused to recognise tenant farmers, who constitute 35% of the farming community

Officials yet to get guidelines on identification of tenant farmers for payment of crop loss assistance. CPI(M) leaders examining the crop lost due to recent heavy rains at Kondapur mandal in Sangareddy district. | Photo Credit: MOHD ARIF

During last week while visiting rain-hit farmers in Khammam district, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) founder and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao announced that a crop loss assistance of ₹10,000 per acre would be extended to all affected farmers, including tenants. The Chief Minister took the decision after Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar brought the issue to his notice.

Identification of tenant farmers is a crucial issue, even beyond the present disaster assistance, as it is estimated that there are around 22 lakh tenant farmers in the State, constituting 35% of the farming community, as per a recent State-wide study by Rythu Swarajya Vedika.

As per the Telangana Land Licensed Cultivators Act (2011), the government is mandated to issue Loan Eligibility Cards (LEC) to all tenant farmers based on a simple application. According to the Rules of the Act, notified on January 23, 2012, the revenue officer shall publish a notice in each revenue village of his/ her intention to prepare a record of licensed cultivators asking them to submit a declaration. Application forms are to be made available in each village, and the tenant farmer is expected to submit an application to the revenue officer, which does not require the signature of a land owner, but if any written permission from the land owner exists that may be submitted. Later an enquiry will be held in Grama Sabha where the revenue official shall ascertain the facts and subsequently issue the LEC to the verified tenant cultivators.

“The Telangana Government, after formation of State, adopted The Andhra Pradesh Land Licenced Cultivators Act, 2011, and even issued some 34,000 LEC cards to tenant farmers in 2015 -16. Later, the submission of applications was entrusted to Meeseva Centres where it got stuck due to some technical reasons, so very few applications were accepted,” Vissa Kiran Kumar of Rythu Swarjya Vedika (RSV) told The Hindu.

“However, by 2017-18, the Chief Minister took the position that the government would not recognise the tenant farmers as Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bima were going to be implemented,” he added.

Since the government did not issue LEC cards to all the tenant farmers in the State, RSV has urged the government to immediately issue guidelines for enumerating the rain-affected tenant farmers. For the upcoming kharif season, the government should start implementing Licensed Cultivators Act, 2011 to issue LEC cards to lakhs of tenant farmers and ensure that they get the benefits of all government schemes.

Now the government has to start enumeration of crop loss in the fields specifying the land owner and tenant farmer. “As of now we are enumerating crop loss at field level. But we have not yet received any information on how to identify tenant farmers. The guidelines are expected to be notified in a day or two,” said an agriculture officer on condition of anonymity.