A panel of ministers is currently visiting all ten districts of Telangana over a fortnight to seek public opinion, particularly from farmers, before framing the guidelines for its scheme for farming incentive, Rythu Bharosa.

In a novel move, the Cabinet subcommittee will complete its tour of districts by 23 July and submit its report before the Assembly. The first meeting of the committee was held at the Collectorate in the Khammam district.

Introduced by the previous BRS government under K Chandrasekhar Rao, the incentive scheme that was then called Rythu Bandhu evoked a lot of criticism since the funds went to only farmers with large tracts of land while the tenant farmers were kept out of the scheme completely.

The Congress, in its manifesto for the assembly elections, had promised to include the tenant farmers in the scheme by increasing the annual allocation to Rs 15,000 from Rs 10,000 paid by the previous regime. Aware of the criticism that surfaced against the scheme during KCR’s tenure, a cautious Congress decided to seek public opinion before finalising the rules and procedures for the Rythu Bharosa Scheme.

For this, the state government set up a Cabinet sub-committee with state Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka as its chairman, Agriculture Minister T Nageswara Rao, Industry Minister D Sridhar Babu and Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy as members.

“We will pay the funds for Rythu Bharosha from the taxes collected from the people. That is why the government decided to know what was in the minds of the people,” Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy had said earlier.

Today, T Nageshwar Rao said the government would ensure the implementation of the scheme for small and marginal farmers. Bhatti Vikramarka, who also holds the finance portfolio, said the government would present a full Budget this time and stand by the cultivators and farm sector.

According to the BRS government, the financial incentive for farmers went to a lot of land that was not under cultivation causing a huge loss to the exchequer. Even the plots converted into real estate where commercial and nonagricultural activities were being carried out, got funds under this scheme leading to wastage of public money. An upper cap on land holding is also being considered by the current government.