Tenant, Adivasi farmers demand inclusion in Telangana’s Rythu Bandhu scheme

Hyderabad: Tenant and Adivasi farmers from six districts held marches across the Telangana on Thursday demanding that they also be included in the government’s ‘Rythu Bandhu’ scheme, under which farm owners are given Rs4,000 per acre (for both Kharif and Rabi seasons) to help with their farming expenses.

Hundreds of farmers came out on the streets and stopped the convoys of state finance and education ministers Eatala Rajender and Kadiam Srihari at Geesukonda mandal in Warangal (rural) district, said Kiran Vissa from the Rythu Swaraj Vedika, an organisation that works on farmer issues in Telangana.

Raising slogans, tenant and Adivasi farmers said government support, including the ‘Rythu Bandhu’ scheme, should go to “real cultivators” and not absentee landlords who are being given money under the scheme.

Vissa added that the protests were held at 22 different points and that the programme was also supported by Left parties and the newly formed Telangana Jana Samithi, led by Prof. M. Kodandaram.

The protests took place in the districts of Karimnagar, Warangal (urban), Warangal (rural), Mahbubabad, Kothagudem and Khammam. Vissa claimed that 1.5 million “real” cultivators, including tenant farmers and adivasi farmers, have been excluded from the Rythu Bandhu scheme and demanded a comprehensive support scheme for them.