Rythu Bandu Scheme guidelines challenged

The High Court here on Monday heard a writ petition filed by a tenant farmer challenging the guidelines for the ‘Rythu Bandhu’ scheme to provide investment support of ₹4,000 per acre only to the land title holder and not to the actual cultivator.

The Court later issued a notice to the Telangana government to submit its response within a week and posted the next hearing on April 23, according to a release from Rythu Swarajya Vedika, Hyderabad.

The Court also ordered the government to examine the application of the tenant farmers for Loan and Other Benefits Eligibility Card (LEC) under the Land Licensed Cultivators Act (2011) and issue the card based on eligibility.

The petition was filed by a landless tenant farmer belonging to Karimnagar district who had been cultivating four acres of land on lease for the past several years.

“As he does not have any other land, the tenant farmer is solely dependent on the leased land for livelihood and he had also obtained the LEC card in 2015-16. But later the Telangana government did not issue him the LEC Card and he could not get access to bank loans, crop insurance or any subsidies,” Vedika representative Kiran Kumar Vissa said. Now under the new Rythu Bandhu scheme, the State government did not make any provision for providing investment support of ₹4,000 per acre to the actual cultivator.

The farmer petitioned the High Court that he was facing severe injustice because of government guidelines which pushed him into debt and distress.