TELANGANA
Telangana faces the issue of tackling more than 1.17 lakh cheques issued in the names of deceased and non-resident farmers under the Rythu Bandhu Scheme meant to aid farmers during two crop seasons in a year.
The New Leam Staff
The Rythu Bandhu Scheme is a farmer support scheme in order to support farmers investment for two crops a year by the Government of Telangana . This is a scheme where the cash is paid directly to the farmer. It has been reported that the Revenue Department is finding it impossible to deal with the huge number of cheques issued under the Rythu Bandhu, that have still not been distributed.
This has happened as a great number of the cheques about 1.17 lakh in number were issued in the name of beneficiaries who have died and they remained undistributed. Out of the districts where cheques could not be distributed the Nalgonda had 9,180 cheques followed by Jagtial (8,980), Kamareddy (8,922) and Mahbubnagar (7,931). The officials claim that the main reason why this problem occurred is that they were not informed about the death of the landowner/patidar at the correct time and so the names of the new owner could not be uploaded on the record.
Similar many of the cheques issued were written in the name of landowners who no longer live in India or live in other states. It is estimated that 2.54 lakh cheques had been issued in the name of beneficiaries who do not live in the respective villages and 60,900 beneficiaries of the cheques resided outside the country. 47.59 lakh cheques out of the 57.88 lakh targeted were distributed as per the records shown by the management information system leaving around 9 lakh cheques yet to be distributed. A little over 3.2 lakh cheques remained undistributed owing to revenue-related issues while another 2.7 lakh cheques due to other reasons.
The scheme that was meant to help farmers practice agriculture and help them to financially deal with problems associated with farming has been made into a scenario where callousness and ineffective administration have rendered it worthless. The cheques issued in the names of those who have died or have left the state have meant that the administration has to deal with many problems that could be averted. The scheme will bring forward qualitative difference in the lives of the farmers if the scheme is executed properly.
