Eye on 2019 Polls, KCR Showcases Telangana's Farmer-Friendly Schemes in NITI Aayog Meeting

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is aspiring for a role in national politics ahead of the 2019 elections, utilised the opportunity at the NITI Aayog meeting to project his state as the role model in rolling out farmer-friendly schemes and agricultural initiatives.

In his speech, the chief minister, popularly known as KCR, highlighted several welfare schemes and initiatives that were taken up by the state in the agriculture sector.

KCR showcased his flagship “Rythu Bandhu” (Friends of Farmers) scheme that provides Rs 4,000 per acre per crop as agriculture input assistance. The initiative is likely to benefit 58 lakh farmers in the state.

The chief minister also spoke about “Rythu Bhima Yojana” or insurance scheme for farmers, which will be launched on August 15 and will cover about 50 lakh farmers in the state.

“With public sector giant LIC, our government will insure each farmer aged between 18-60 years. In case of his/her unfortunate death due to any reason whatsoever, Rs 5 lakh will be given. The state government bears the insurance premium costing about Rs 1,000 crore per annum,” KCR said.

He added, “We need to focus on agriculture and allied activities as an integrated sector and dairy, poultry, goat and sheep rearing. Fisheries should also be exempted from income tax. As part of the initiatives for doubling the income of farmers, MGNREGA funds should be tagged to agriculture with 50% contribution from farmers to reduce the cost of their investment.”

The chief minister also explained how his government had taken up a massive exercise to purify the title of over 50 lakh farm holdings in the state and give them a Pattaadar Pass Book embedded with 17 security features.

He made specific mentions about massive investments in irrigation projects and infrastructure development such as construction of godowns to help farmers in the state.

“Kaleshwaram and Palamoor Ranga Reddy Irrigation Projects, on rivers Godavari and Krishna, will become the life line of Telangana on completion. These projects shall provide new irrigation facilities to farmers in over 26 lakh acres and in stabilisation of 18 lakh acres in 24 districts of Telangana,” KCR added.

The chief minister also appealed to the Centre that the fast-growing states must be encouraged by tax incentives, if not by additional transfers from central funds.