Rythu Bandhu benefits to tenants not legal: KCR

​Hyderabad: In the wake of the demand from the opposition to extend Rythu Bandhu benefits to tenant farmers, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Saturday clarified that the government is against the suggestion to convert the scheme into ‘Tenant Rythu Bandhu’.

At a high-level review meeting on the implementation of the crop investment support programme here, the Chief Minister said that it was meaningless to demand that the scheme should be made applicable to tenant farmers and the opposition argument is against all legal norms.

He said that there is no clarity as to who is a tenant farmer. The government is not having details of tenant farmers and there is also no mention about the details of tenants nowhere in the official records. The so-called tenant farmers shall not have any right on the land.

Every rupee spent by the government should have the approval of the Assembly. There will be an audit to every expenditure. It is not possible to distribute money to everyone, KCR said that legally, it is not acceptable to provide investment support to those who have no right on the land and do not possess any document to prove the right. He felt that in the name of tenant farmer, it is not correct to do injustice to the original farmer. 

The government has taken a policy decision to allocate Rs 12,000 crore for the scheme in the budget. Accordingly, every farmer recognised by the government as the one who has ownership rights on the land gets the investment support. “It is impossible to agree the demand of some people to extend investment support to the tenant farmers” the CM said.