Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao defined in the Assembly on Saturday that only those having cultivable patta landholding are recognised as farmers as matter of government policy and it’s they who will get the benefit of any government scheme aimed at the farming community.
“It’s not our (government) policy to harass the farmers by creating problems in the matter of their rights on their landholdings. We know how they were harassed in the past in the matter of rights over their landholding with the help of revenue officials,” the Chief Minister said while giving clarification to Congress member D. Sridhar Babu, who suggested that the government could give a thought on extending the benefits like Rythu Bandhu to the real cultivators (tenant farmers).
The Chief Minister, however, said that the government would make an appeal to the pattadar farmers to have a benevolent attitude towards tenant farmers and extend the benefits offered by the government to the latter. “It’s a relation between the farmer and the cultivator and it is for them to have a proper understanding,” he stated.
Stating that Dharani website would become available within the next few months, the Chief Minister said bankers would be asked to give crop loans based on the land records available on the site without asking for pattadar passbooks. Although some banks were keeping the passbooks of farmers with them while giving loans, it was illegal. Steps would taken to give loans up to ₹1.6 lakh to farmers without any collateral security, he noted.
On the crop loan waiver up to ₹1 lakh per farmer promised by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) before the Assembly elections, the Chief Minister said he had never committed that it would be done at a go. Asking the farmers to get their crop loans renewed by repaying the dues, the Chief Minister said the government would clear the outstanding amount as on December 11, 2018 in four or five instalments based on the Central devolution to the State.
He, however, made it clear that the government had no intent to burden the farmers with interest on the outstanding amount and it would be borne by the government till the cut-off date. The government was also thinking about giving the loan waiver benefit directly to the farmers through cheques, he stated adding that the details of crop loan dues till the cut-off date were being worked out.