TS Govt issues guidelines to enhance 'Rythu Bandhu' amount

Hyderabad: Telangana Government on Saturday issued guidelines to enhance Agriculture Investment Support Scheme - Rythu Bandhu from Rs. 4,000 to Rs. 5,000 per acre per season.

As per the GO. Rt. No. 202 issued by Agriculture & Cooperation Department Principal Secretary C. Parathasarathi, the Commissioner & Director of Agriculture has submitted detailed proposals for continuation of the implementation of 'Rythu Bandhu' during 2019-20. The Scheme was implemented in the year 2018-19 with the objective of relieving the farmers from debt burden and not allowing them to fall in the debt trap. This scheme was proposed for providing Initial investment support to Agriculture and Horticulture crops by way of a grant @ Rs. 4000/- per acre per farmer each season towards purchase of inputs like Seeds, Fertilizers, Pesticides, towards Labor and other investments in the field operations of farmers' choice for the crop season.

The scheme was successfully implemented during Kharif-2018 and Rabi-2018-19, duly extending it to Agency areas and RoFR (Recognition of Forest Rights) patta holders.

The scheme has been appreciated by the entire farming community and also throughout the country and has also brought laurels of FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome) and other International agencies.

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao, in the last Legislative Assembly session, announced that the assistance under Rythu Bandhu shall be enhanced to Rs. 5000/- per acre per season from 2019-20 onwards to all the Agriculture and Horticulture farmers. During the current year the scheme will be implemented by providing enhanced assistance of Rs. 5000/- per acre per season to all the Pattadars and RoFR title holders, by way of electronic transfer of money through e-Kuber (RBI payment platform) and the bills will be processed through DTO, Ranga Reddy district, as was done during Rabi 2018-19, since the system is streamlined and the DTO, Ranga Reddy is well acquainted with the procedure.

During current year, it is proposed to provide assistance to all the pattadars both during Kharif and Rabi, as per the digitally signed data received from CCLA, prior to every season as done during 2018-19.

However, the detailed guidelines for implementation of the scheme issued during Kharif in the reference 2ndand 3rdread above will be followed including extension of the scheme to the Agency areas to all the RoFR title holders. All the RoFR beneficiaries will be identified by the District Collectors concerned according to the guidelines issued by the Tribal Welfare Department in consultation with the Forest Department. The data pertaining to the RoFR Patta holders will be obtained from Commissioner Tribal welfare before every season as being done for Revenue Patta holders.

The Commissioner & Director of Agriculture has been authorized to issue sanction for drawl of funds from the District Treasury Office, Ranga Reddy District with respect to Rythu Bandhu funds and the DDO nominated from the accounts section of Commissioner & Director of Agriculture shall present the bills on his behalf in the District Treasury Office, Ranga Reddy District.

Further, the validity time period for re-submission of failure cases is extended from 3 to 6 months, keeping in view the huge number of beneficiaries, as there is a possibility of number of failure cases and accordingly more time may be required for re-submitting the corrected bank account details.