HYDERABAD: Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Wednesday said that a written reply by Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to a question raised by him in the Lok Sabha has exposed the injustice being done to tenant farmers in the country, especially Telangana.
He said that the Central government has given a “generalised reply and misleading” information on the steps taken for the inclusion of tenant farmers and share croppers in various schemes.
In a statement, Uttam said that the Union Minister avoided answering the question on the non-inclusion of tenant farmers in the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) even in the States which provides cash support to landless tenant farmers such as Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
“By simply saying that ‘Landholding is the primary condition for eligibility for PM-KISAN, the Centre is declaring that it do-esn’t care for millions of landless tenant farmers across India. Is the Minister declaring that millions of tenant farmers are not ‘kisans’? Don’t they deserve the same “sammaan” as the land owners with pattas,” he asked.
Uttam said there were 18 lakh tenant farmers in Telangana who are cultivating around 20 percent of agricultural land.