When tenant farmers are given their due

Many landowners decide to share benefit of Rythu Bandhu scheme with their lessees

Even as the State government outrightly refused to extend the benefits of Rythu Bandhu (investment support scheme) to tenant farmers, some landowners who have benefited from the scheme, have been considerate enough and decided to reduce the lease amount so as to share the largesse with their tenant farmers.

At a time when the tenant farmers lost hopes of securing government assistance, those owning the lands — mostly the rich landlords, government/bank employees, private doctors and other businessmen — have voluntarily announced a reduction in the rent amount while leasing out their farm lands to tenant farmers.

Some are reducing the lease amount by ₹ 4,000 per acre after having collected the Rythu Bandhu scheme assistance while others are reducing it by ₹ 2,000 per acre. The lease for agricultural lands are fixed for a period of one year at the rate of ₹ 10,000 to ₹ 14,000 for black cotton soils and ₹ 15,000 to ₹ 20,000 per acre for the cultivation of paddy in the SRSP command area and in non-command area it is fixed at ₹ 8,000 to ₹ 10,000 per annum.

A government teacher Lambu Raji Reddy, who owns land in Chagunta village of Choppadandi mandal, said that he had given his land to a tenant farmer for cultivation and has decided to reduce the lease amount by ₹ 4,000 per acre.

A doctor with private practice in Karimnagar town, who owns farm lands in Manakondur mandal said, “I am not a farmer, but the government has given me ₹ 4,000 per acre as I own the land. But the real cultivator is my tenant farmer, who is producing food for the nation. I decided to reduce the lease amount by ₹ 5,000 per acre and help him.”

Rythu Ikya Vedika Karimnagar district president Maduganti Venkat Reddy said over 70 per cent of farmers, who are tenants, were cultivating the lands and not the rich farmers who own more than five acres of land. Unfortunately the Rythu Bandhu scheme has been made applicable only to the land owners, who do not toil in the fields , he said and appealed to all the landowners to reduce the lease amount by ₹ 4,000 per acre to benefit the tenant farmers. He said that they would be launching a campaign in all villages to that effect .