The national media which usually ignores the achievements of states focussing more on national politics has showered praises on Rythu Bandhu, one of the Telangana government’s flagship programmes.
Taking note of celebrations all over the state on disbursement of RS 50,000 crore to 65 lakh farmers since the scheme was launched in 2018, the national media observed that except Telangana, no government in any state introduced such a scheme. The Telangana government has been giving a cash of Rs 5,000 per acre twice a year to every farmer as input assistance to buy seeds, fertilisers or other requirements.
The Telangana government so far spent Rs 2.7 lakh crore during the last seven years in the form of free power, irrigation projects, irrigation canal improvement among others. The agricultural growth rate that was 1.8 per cent in 2013-2014 is now 8.1 percent and its contribution to GSDP is 21 percent now, the national media observed.
Now taking a cue from Telangana state, the Andhra Pradesh, Jharkand, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal governments are also implementing the same scheme. The Tamil Nadu government is now implementing the `Kalyana Lakshmi’ scheme of Telangana and in the past the Central government too replicated many schemes launched by the Telangana state.
When reporters from NDTV interacted with farmers in rural areas, many farmers said the Rythu Bandhu helped them a lot. In the past they used to go round the local money lenders or traders to meet input expenditure and were forced to sell the produce to the same traders at low price.
“We are now getting a cash of Rs 5,000 every six months and we need not approach the money lender or traders to meet our input expenditure,” they told the media persons.
By Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao