Will scrap YSRCP’s tenant farmers law, says Atchanna

Vijayawada : Minister for agriculture, marketing and dairy development K Atchannaidu said the government would scrap the Tenant Farmers Act which was brought in by the previous government and will bring a new law that would do justice to the tenant farmers in the state.

Speaking at a review meeting with state level APCOB officials here on Saturday, the minister said efforts were on to streamline the co-operative sector so that farmers can get hassle free services from the co-operative societies. He said agriculture and co-operative sector were very important for the government.

He made it clear that every tenant farmer will be sanctioned loans and steps will be taken to pay compensation to them for the crop loss caused by calamities. He said transparency will be maintained in implementation of rules related to the co-operative sector and societies.

He urged the co-operative societies to include the tenant farmers as the members in the societies and sanction crop loans.

He said the NDA government will take steps to develop the co-operative banks on par with the commercial banks.

He said tenant farmers comprise 90 per cent of the total farmers in the state. Atchannaidu said the previous YSRCP government betrayed the tenant farmers by not granting credit cards to them.

He said the tenant farmers suffered hardships during last five years due to non-sanctioning of crop loans by the bankers which forced them to take loans from money lenders at very high interest rates.

He asked the co-operative banks to take measures to sanction loans to the farmers, including tenant farmers and bring back the good days to the farmers.

He said Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu during the state-level bankers meet appealed to the bankers to sanction crop loans liberally to the farmers. Atchannaidu said farmers are suffering losses due to natural calamities and crop damage caused by rains and floods.

He said corruption and irregularities can be prevented with digitalisation of banks. He suggested that the APCOB and District Co-operative Central Banks to expand their branches and provide better services to the customers and farmers.

Th minister along with special chief secretary B Rajasekhar inaugurated the WhatsApp banking services and sought a report on the performance of APCOB in all districts.