Telangana Chief Minister’s revolutionary farm reforms!
Let us congratulate the hon’ble Chief Minister!
Agriculture is never easy. It is a tough field. It requires tonnes of nerves and unlimited will power. For politicians lately, agriculture has become a plaything. How many Chief Ministers, the ambitious and the cunning ones, specially have promised instant farm loan write offs!
Yet, how long the Indian farmers are in distress?
Who dares to ask and who is ready for an honest answer.
Agriculture at the national level is an election stunt. At the grassroots, it is a bi bundle of outdated laws, landownership laws to land leasing laws are steeped in antiquity! Anyone who lives in the villages knows well it is a hell out there!
That is one reason we believe why the elder politicians, past the 80s and beyond are all so choosy to live in Delhi and do “politics” in the cool Lutyen bungalows!
Who among the rich and well-off choose to retire to their states and that too to their villages?
The one big leader we remember is the late N.Sanjeeva Reddy whom we travelled all the way from Bangalore to meet and he chose to live in his ancestral house in the distant Ananthapur. Even he had to shift to Bangalore in his last days for various reasons. Now, medicare and other needs drive people to urban centres and as for politicians the money factor has to be taken into account. The point here is that in the face of so much neglect of our agriculture, you see there is still, after four years of the Modi government and much of the modernisation of the e-market in the farm goods mandis, the latest heart-rending news is the farmer in Madhya Pradesh in Vidisha district had to die, horror of horrors, in the scorching sun in which he stood in a queue for long for four days!
And yet he could get his crop to be weighed and sold! What use the e-market; one is tempted to ask the government. So, here is some green news. The TV channels show the green Telangana, full of cheering faces, the farmer ploughing his land, the rice fields full of latest ripe crops, the farmers’ wives smiling and as they attend to the haystock and every moment is a joy to watch a such promising land reform package, the Telangana government has announced. First the land records updating. Oh, this is almost an impossible task, given the age-old laws, the age old revenue department and the corruption that grips this one of the oldest government departments. How many reforms had come about in this sector and yet, you please take this as a test and ask any ordinary farmer!
How to get your basic land record? Then you will understand the age in which our hapless farmers are living. Life for an average Indian farmer is hell. Either the farmer is a debtor or a litigant! Or, both! How the rest of the society thriving on this hopeless mass of poor farmers.
So, the Telangana government has announced the Rythu Bandhu scheme under which land records would be cleaned, creating satisfied farmers. The budget allocation is Rs. 12,000 crores. 93 % of the farmers would be turned into litigation free! Oh, the hon’ble Chief Minister! If you can do only this and not any other programmes, the country would salute you! We salute you just for this one step of reform of the land records. 1.43 crores acres would be covered, says a government advertisement in all some 58 lakh farmers would benefit, and says the government.
Pattadar Passbook cum Title Deed with 17 security features and the first Cheque to be distributed to 58 lakh farmers. From 10th may 2018!
This really a herculean programme of updating and purifying the revenue records in just about hundred days. The programme has already deployed 1,523 teams in 10,823 villages in 568 mandals of 30 districts in Telangana (excluding Hyderabad), verifying a mammoth total of 2,38,551 acres of land! Only those who do actual farming, one who lives in the villages know the hardships suffered by the farmers!
The government proclaims that this is a novel initiative by a visionary government, the first time in the history of India! Yes, the Telangana government has attempted this bold Rythu Bandhu reform. We know the many hurdles in the way of implementation. But why not?
Come what may! We wish the hon’ble Chief Minister to taking up such a revolutionary step! May the Telangana government deserves all praise and let other states, their chief ministers draw inspiration from what the hon’ble Chandrasekhar Rao has done for Indian farmers’ welfare!