‘Recognise all Telangana tenant farmers’: Samyukta Kisan Morcha demands Congress fulfil promises

Hyderabad: Major farmer organisations and agricultural worker unions, under the banner Samyukta Kisan Morcha, demanded the implementation of promises the State government made to tenant farmers and agricultural workers.

The unions held a press conference on Friday, ahead of the Telangana Cabinet meeting said to be scheduled for January 4.

‘No change in government even after December 4 dharna’

The attendees said, that despite a massive public protest on December 4—which saw hundreds of tenant farmers coming to Hyderabad—the State government has not taken any steps towards recognition of tenant farmers or made any announcement regarding the implementation of their election guarantee to extend Rythu Bharosa to tenant farmers.

The farmer leaders criticised the government for ignoring the promises they made in their ‘Six Guarantees’ card and the open letter to tenant farmers that CM Revanth Reddy wrote in September 2023 before the Telangana State Assembly elections.

Six guarantees by Congress

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, on December 1, 2024, said his government is committed to implementing Rythu Bharosa, one of the Congress party’s six poll guarantees, after the three-day Sankranti festival (January 13, 14, 15).

As part of its six poll guarantees, the Congress party promised to provide Rs 15,000 to farmers and tenant farmers, and Rs 12,000 to farm workers under the Rythu Bharosa scheme per acre annually.

During the Friday meeting, speaking about the recent Assembly session where the agriculture minister asked for suggestions on the recognition of tenant farmers, the leaders said, “But we have already made submissions to the government on how to recognise tenant farmers. The government is ignoring the Telangana Land Licensed Cultivators Act which was brought by the previous Congress government in 2011 and is still in force in Telangana. As per this act, the government is required to accept applications from cultivators of leased land and issue them loans and the eligibility card for other benefits.”

Cabinet sub-committee discussed Rythu Bharosa

On Thursday, a Cabinet sub-committee of the Telangana government formed for the implementation of the Rythu Bharosa scheme for farmers, met. The committee members, headed by deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, decided, in principle, to extend the benefit to ‘every ryot cultivating crops.’

The committee also decided to conduct Gram Sabhas for three days starting January 5 to receive applications for the scheme and to extensively promote the programme, sources said.

‘Farmers not consulted by Rythu Bharosa Cabinet Sub-Committee’

“The decisions of the Rythu Bharosa Cabinet sub-committee appeared in the media today, but the sub-committee took the decisions without holding a State-level meeting with farmers’ associations and agricultural worker unions,” the farmers said.

“We had welcomed the fact that the sub-committee conducted public consultations of farmers in the five erstwhile districts, but it seems that the opinions from those meetings were not taken into account when making the decisions. A large number of participants in the district meetings gave their opinion that tenant farmers should also be identified and provided assistance, and almost everyone said that a limit should be placed on the number of acres and Rythu Bharosa should not be given to land holdings exceeding 5 or 10 acres. However, it seems that the sub-committee’s recommendations go against the majority opinions from the public consultations,” they added.

The sub-committee will present its views to the State Cabinet, official sources said.

‘Tenant farmers constitute 36% of Telangana farmers’

While the farmers welcomed the government’s stand that only cultivated lands would get Rythu Bharosa support, they questioned the government’s decision to ignore the actual cultivators.

“Even though the government is claiming that they have spent a record amount of Rs 54,000 crores towards farmers in the first year, not even 1 per cent has gone to tenant cultivators who constitute 36 per cent of Telangana farmers,” they said.

The leaders reminded the CM that in his open letter to tenant farmers, he mentioned that there are 22 lakh tenant farmers who are cultivating 40 per cent of the land but the BRS government completely ignored them.

The SKM leaders also demanded that the promised payment of Rs 12,000 should go to all agricultural workers—without requirements such as completion of 100 days of work in MGNREGS, as indicated in some news reports. The leaders demanded that all agricultural workers who own less than 1 acre of land should be made eligible for the scheme.

Opposition parties on tenant farmers

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, BJP floor leader in the Assembly, Alleti Maheshwar Reddy, urged the Cabinet to take a decision on the scheme’s launch during its upcoming meeting.

BRS MLC K Kavitha accused the Congress government of attempting to impose conditions on extending the benefits of the Rythu Bharosa scheme.

Addressing a gathering of party workers in Bodhan, she accused CM Revanth Reddy of adopting ‘anti-farmer policies’ and ‘betraying’ the farming community. She demanded the unconditional disbursement of Rythu Bharosa funds, ‘free from bureaucratic hurdles.’