Rythu Bharosa for tenant farmers too in Andhra Pradesh

VIJAYAWADA: The Assembly on Thursday passed the Andhra Pradesh Crop Cultivator Rights Bill, 2019, providing certain privileges on tenant farmers without affecting the rights of  land owners.

Once the new law comes into effect, tenant farmers will have access to credit from banks, other benefits such as input subsidies, crop insurance, compensation for crop damage and any other facilities provided to farmers by the government.

No change will be made in the land records and ownership rights of owners. The agreement between landowner and cultivator (tenant) will be in the form of Crop Cultivator Rights Card, which will have information such as the names of the landowner and cultivator, survey number, boundaries, location of land and duration of the agreement (11 months).

It will have the terms and conditions that the cultivator (tenant) shall not acquire any right over the property.

The Crop Cultivator Rights Card is sufficient for the cultivator to obtain crop loan from the State, Central government or cooperative societies, scheduled banks or any other financial institutions owned, controlled or managed by the state or Union government.

The bankers shall sanction and disburse crop loan without insisting on other documents from the cultivator. Bankers cannot attach the scheduled land for recovery of any dues from the cultivator.

Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said that the most important feature of the Bill was that all government benefits would be available to tenant farmers without weakening the rights of landowner.
Jagan announced that farmers (land owners) would get Rythu Bharosa benefit of Rs 12,500 a year.

At the same time, tenant farmers belong to the SCs, STs, BCs and minorities would also get the scheme benefits in addition to  other facilities.

Deputy Chief Minister (Revenue) Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose said, “The AP Tenancy Act, 1956 created a sense of insecurity among landowners. They have not trusted tenants fearing that they might lose their land rights. But, the new Act will be beneficial for both landowners and tenants as revenue records will not contain the name of cultivator and landowner can utilise loans,’’ he said. Dharmana Prasad Rao, M Mahidhar Reddy and other members hailed the government for coming up with such a Bill and observed it would give a fillip to agriculture sector growth.

Four TDP MLAs suspended

With the TDP members remaining on the Speaker’s podium raising slogans when the Deputy Chief Minister (Revenue) Pilli Subash Chandra Bose was reading out the salient features of the Bill, Speaker Tammineni Sitaram suspended four Opposition MLAs — Bendalam Ashok, Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar, D Veeranjaneyulu and V Ramakrishnababu — for the day.

When marshals entered the House and picked up MLA Bala Veeranjaneya Swamy, the TDP leaders asked them to desist from lifting the MLA. The TDP members urged the Speaker to give a chance to Opposition Leader N Chandrababu Naidu to register their protest.

However, failing to get the opportunity, Naidu along with other TDP members staged a walkout after saying ‘Namaskar.’