Telangana polls: How EC’s nod to BRS’ Rythu Bandhu forces Congress to issue job calendar

Telangana: From Rythu Bandhu to government jobs, BRS and Congress have gone into an overdrive to lure voters with new stunts and promises.

A few hours after the Election Commission granted permission to the BRS government for the distribution of Rythu Bandhu, the Telangana Congress issued advertisements of the job calendar to woo the voters.

Telangana Congress released the job calendar along with the manifesto last week. Now, they have issued advertisements detailing about vacant posts and the date to fill them up.

While the BRS is targeting the elderly voters, Congress is focusing on the youth. Congress is trying its best to take the sting out of BRS which is hoping to cash in on EC approval for Rythu Bandhu.

What is Rythu Bandhu?

A flagship agriculture support scheme, Rythu Bandhu is aimed to help farmers in buying seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and labor charges during the season. The scheme benefits only the farmers who own the land and not the tenant farmers.

Telangana has a cultivable area of 1.47cr acres and Rs.16,000cr will be disbursed under the scheme into the accounts of farmers.

As per the scheme, investment support of Rs. 5,000 per acre per farmer will be directly transferred into the accounts each season of Kharif and Rabi making it Rs 10,000 per annum per acre. Telangana government has spent Rs 70,000 crore over eleven cropping seasons benefiting 60 lakh farmers. BRS promised to increase the Rythu Bandhu amount to Rs 16,000 per acre per annum.

With the approval, the state government will disburse Rythu Bandhu's aid of around Rs 7,500 crore to accounts of over 70 lakh farmers ahead of assembly polls.

Pertinently, the government used to transfer the aid in January, but keeping in view the upcoming elections, it has been seeking to advance it. And the ECI has given it a green signal.

What does Congress' job calendar promise?

Congress promises to fill 2 lakh government jobs in Telangana within one year.

In the first cabinet meeting, this schedule will be approved. There will be no application fees for these jobs. Just so you know, all ongoing recruitment processes will also be completed according to existing schedules.

Some of the posts include:

1. Group I-IV Appointments phase-wise.

2. Assistant Executive/ Assistant Engineer Reads &, Building, Irrigation and Rural water supply.

3. Agriculture, Horticulture, and Veterinary officers.

4. Assistant motor vehicle inspector.

5. Transport constables, police constables.

6. Junior lecturers, Polytechnic Lecturers, Degree College Lecturers.

7. Teachers, Headmasters, Kindergarten teachers.

8. Staff nurses, Hospital staff, and Paramedical staff.

9. Doctors under the department of medical health, Vaidhya Vidhya Parishad.

10. Village revenue officers.

Responding to the ECI approval for Rythu Bandhu, PCC Chief Revanth Reddy said that it's evident that the central and state governments function as one entity. "Farmers should not be affected with the delay of Rythu bandhu funds at the same time. Congress aims to provide even more support through Rythu Bandhu once coming to power," Revanth said.