Anantapur: Bias in allotment of CHCs alleged

Anantapur: Resentment is brewing against agriculture department authorities for identifying beneficiaries for allotment of Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) which supply farm machinery to farmers who cannot afford purchase farm equipment.

The criticism against the authorities is that they are preferring only one particular community instead of accommodating members of all communities who applied for the custom hiring centres. These allotments are being made reportedly on the recommendation of the ruling party MLAs.

District authorities have identified 859 CHCs. Small and marginal farmers have to constitute a society /sangham /group. Members within a family or relation should not form Rythu sangam /farmers group. Mandal agriculture officer and assistant director of the agriculture department have to identify the Rythu Sangham and allot the Hiring Centre. Applications received at Rythu Bharosa Kendra are not considered. Most of the farmers belonging to Backward Classes / Scheduled Caste / Schedule Tribes are unaware of the policies and subsidies implemented by the government. Several applications submitted by these underprivileged communities were not considered. Rythu Mitra chairman M Suresh Babu told 'The Hans India' that majority of the Customer Hiring Centres were allotted to one particular community.

Mandal agriculture officers and assistant directors have no role in identifying the Customer Hiring Centres and are mute spectators. The local public representatives submitted the names which are identified as CHCs. There are no applications or information about the identified CHCs at mandal agriculture offices.