No sops for 30 lakh acres farm land in Telangana

Hyderabad: Nearly 30 lakh acres of agricultural land that figures in revenue records will be excluded from farm sop of Rs 8,000 per acre per year. 

The recent drive to purify land records found that the state has 1.62 lakh acres of agricultural land. Of this, 30 lakh acres are lying waste for various reasons. A major share of the land was purchased as investment around cities and towns and no agricultural activity has been done for years here. Layouts have also been made on large chunks of these lands.

The state government has asked agricultural department officials in all districts to take up ground-level verification from February 6 and to submit the details of lands that can be excluded from farm sop immediately.

The government needs to shell out Rs 10,000 crore per year, if all agricultural lands are covered under the sop, as per revenue records. By excluding lands that are not used for cultivation, the government hopes to bring down its burden to Rs 6,000 crore.