Begin recognition of Telangana tenant farmers: Unions to govt

Hyderabad: The Samyukta Kisan Morcha and Telangana Kaulu Raitula Gurtimpu Sadhana Committee here on Friday, September 11, demanded the Telangana government to start the process of recognising tenant cultivators immediately. The organisations stated that tenant farmers are ready to protest across Telangana and Hyderabad over the issue.

The farmer organisations said that they have been demanding from several months for the implementation of the the 2011 Licensed Cultivators Act immediately and for giving cultivator cards to tenant farmers from this Kharif season itself.

At a joint press conference at the Basheerbagh Press Club, the Telangana Kaulu Raitula Gurtimpu Sadhana Committee and Samyukta Kisan Morcha said that the state government here has already delayed the process until now. They added that tenant farmers are already staring at serious lossess this season due to lack of rains and the El Nino effect.

In a press release, the farmer union leaders of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha said, “We demand that government should initiate the process of recognition of tenant cultivators from September itself. We warn the government that in this season with low rainfall and El Nino effect when the crop production is going to be low, if tenant cultivators are not enabled to sell their crop at MSP, there will be high distress and the discontent will overflow. If there is further undue delay in action, tenant farmers are ready to protest across the state and in Hyderabad.”

‘Cabinet subcommittee should resolve the matter quickly’

Referring to the appointment of a Cabinet Subcommittee for Recognition of Cultivators, they said that the subcommittee should resolve the matter quickly and positively and not become a means of creating further delay. According to the Telangana Kaulu Raitula Gurtimpu Sadhana Committee, the process of recognising tenant cultivators through public enquiry at village level is clearly laid out in the 2011 Act.

Moreover, it pointed out that a recent study has showed that relying on a One Time Password (OTP) based mechanism has proved very inadequate for registration of tenant farmers with procurement agencies, with only 6.7% of cotton farmers, 8.5% of maize and soybean farmers and 17% of paddy farmers being able to sell their crop in their own name as cultivators.

The organisations also said that in an all-party Roundtable organized on September 2, representatives of 9 political parties including Congress, CPI, CPI(M), BJP, TJS, CPI(ML) New Democracy, CPI(ML) Mass Line, Telangana Rakshana Sena, and Dharma Samaj Party released a joint statement in support of recognition of tenant cultivators and implementation of the 2011 Act.