HYDERABAD: Tenant farmers have set the second week of September as a deadline for the state government to begin identifying them, warning of a statewide dharna if the process is not initiated.
At a roundtable organised by the Kaulu Raithula Gurthimpu (Tenant Farmers’ Recognition) Sadhana Committee, farmers said the lack of recognition had left them without access to institutional credit and government schemes.
Ramakanth from Adilabad said identification was the first step towards addressing their problems. “Tenancy has reached Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000 per acre. We are not able to avail any bank loans and have to borrow in the market at higher rates. The government should issue loan eligibility cards to tenant farmers by holding gram sabhas as laid down in the 2011 Land Licensed Cultivators Act. In the absence of such recognition, we are forced to sell our produce at cheaper rates,” he said.
Chand Bi from Zaheerabad mandal in Sangareddy district said benefits such as Rythu Bandhu and crop loans went to landowners while tenant farmers were left without support.
Kiran Vissa of the Sadhana Committee said tenant cultivators seeking recognition should be verified through public enquiry at the gram sabha level, as provided under the 2011 Act. “OTP-based verification can be an additional option given to the cultivator, but not the only mechanism. There are no policy implementation hurdles. What is needed is political will,” he said.
Prof Yogendra Yadav said he had backed the Congress because of its promises to tenant farmers. “Lack of progress in implementing the 2011 Act is a dampener and makes me wonder whether there was any merit in backing the party,” he said.
MLC Prof Kodandaram called tenant farmers the most vulnerable section of the farming community and called for a united fight. Prof G Haragopal said the demand for “land to the tiller”, a slogan for about 100 years, had been reduced to merely seeking identification of tenant farmers.