HYDERABAD: Irrespective of farmers raising crops or not, all of them having agriculture land will get `4,000 per acre under Rytu Bandhu scheme. The State government will also consider farmers raising orchards and cultivating vegetables. The eligibility to get the cheque under Rytu Bhandu is just owning agriculture land. The officials are not considering anything else. According to sources, there are apprehensions in the minds of farmers who raise orchards whether they would get investment support every year as the duration of orchards will be around three to four years. “We will give `4,000 to each and every farmer, irrespective of the cropping pattern. Even if any farmer did not cultivate crop, he will get the amount,” an official in Agriculture department told Express.
According to the latest data prepared by the Agriculture department, there are around 60 lakh farmers and the total agriculture land comes around 1.45 crore acres. It means that the expenditure on the State government will be around `5,800 crore for the ensuing Kharif season.For distribution of cheques to these
farmers, the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) selected eight banks - six nationalised bank and two rural banks -- SBI, Canara Bank, Andhra Bank, Syndicate Bank, Corporation Bank, IOB, APGVB and TGB. “For every mandal, one bank was selected. If there are more branches of the same bank in a particular mandal, all the branches will distribute the cheques,” said Agriculture officials who had a meeting with bankers on Friday.
Though the distribution of cheques will start this month formally, the work will be spread over two months. The specimen signature of the Agriculture Commissioner will be digitally printed on the cheques. “We have collected the purification of land records’ data from the Revenue department. Agriculture team took the required part and the data has been given to bankers,” officials said. Besides, the code number of State, district, mandal and village, the Agriculture official are also willing to print the name of the revenue village on the cheque. However, it will be printed as per the space available on the cheque.
The farmers could take money by presenting the cheque in any branch of the bank in the State. Meanwhile, the Finance department officials are in touch with Reserve Bank of India for making available sufficient cash in the State in the next two months to ensure that farmers encash their cheques.