The State government has decided to extend benefits under the Rythu Bandhu, the farmers’ investment support scheme, to farmers as per the digitally signed data obtained from the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA) in the month of January.
The data would be obtained from the CCLA only once for the financial year and it would be frozen for that year, the government said. In the guidelines issued for the implementation of the Rythu Bandhu for the current year, the government said enrolment of fresh pattadars would be considered from the next financial year.
The government made clear that data would be taken prior to the season only to set aside sold out/mutation cases and extents to ensure that assistance is not extended to the sold out/mutated lands. “Only pattadar exclusions can happen and no provision for inclusions for the financial year,” Agriculture Secretary B. Janardhan Reddy said in the guidelines issued for the implementation of the Rythu Bandhu for vaanakalam and yasangi crops.
The total extent owned by the individual farmers across the State would be ascertained/pooled by Aadhaar de-duplication to ensure that farmers owning lesser extents in total should get assistance on priority. Accordingly, directions had been issued that bills would be submitted in ascending order to Treasury from lower acreage to higher acreage owning farmers in case funds were to be released in phases by the Finance department.
Meanwhile, the government took steps to keep ready financial resources to ensure that no eligible farmer is left out while extending the benefit. In spite of the constraints faced on financial side, the government had already credited ₹ 5,500 crore into the account of Agriculture Commissioner towards Rythu Bandhu payments.
With the quantum of funds required likely to be around ₹ 7,000 crore for the current crop season, the government had mobilized another ₹ 2,500 crore from the Reserve Bank of India last week. The amount, raised as State development loan, entails 6.99% cut off yield and it has a tenure of eight years.
Given the priority accorded to extending investment assistance to farmers, the government has constituted a State level monitoring headed by Agriculture Secretary as chairman and Agriculture Commissioner as convener. Finance department special secretary, SLBC convener and State Information Officer of the National Informatics Centre had been made the members of the State level committee and the government directed the officials concerned to constitute similar panels at the district level to monitor the effective implementation of the scheme.
