Hyderabad: Former Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer Akunuri Murali at an event organised to discuss the plight of tenant farmers in Telangana remarked that if things don’t change, they all “would have to march to Pragathi Bhavan with AK-47’s in hand”. His words came during a meeting organised by Rythu Swaraj Vedika, an organisation that works for farmers rights a few days ago.
When asked to substantiate, Murali said that his words came out of anger. A vexed Murali, who is also a member of the Social Democratic Forum (SDF), informed Siasat.com that despite how simple it is to develop a Bangaru Telangana (Golden Telangana), the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government is unwilling to do much.
“Nizanga kaliche udesham emi ledu naaku (I have no real desire to shoot anyone). But I have to state that except for the pension schemes, the BRS government has done nothing for kavulu rythulu (tenant farmers). There have been several suicides and yet the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) behaves like a landlord who is anti-poor,” said Murali.
Murali further argued that Rythu Bandhu only benefitted wealthy land owners and except for a mere six lakhs or so, most farmers (including the ones who rely on tenancy) receive no benefit. “Rythu Bandhu is a good scheme but it is silly to spend a few hundred crores on such a small portion of farmers.” It may be noted that RSV has distanced itself from his statements.
A report by Rythu Swarajya Vedika (RSV), a farmers’ rights organisation in Telangana noted that 97.3% of the surveyed tenant farmers in Telangana did not benefit from the state government’s flagship Rythu Bandhu scheme. Only 10 tenants (0.4%) farmers states that they received their Rythu Bandhu benefits directly.
Even aside from Rythu Bandhu, the tenancy act of 1950 hasn’t percolated to the tenant farmers. 95% of tenant farmers surveyed by RSV said that they had not heard of the 1950 Act while 84% answered that they were unaware of the License Cultivators Act of 2011.
Out of 7744 tenant farmers, 2063 borrowed money from private money lenders. The total average debt a farmer finds himself in in Telangana is Rs 2,68,154. Of the amount, private debts mount to Rs 1,99,852 while the bank debts amount to Rs 68,302.
The interest rate for a tenant farmer is 24 to 60%.
55.5% tenant farmers are unable to sell at the Minimum Support Price (MSP). 41% surveyed tenant farmers do not know whose name is written on crop booking while 40% said that the landowner is written in the crop booking.
