No notes in Telangana for farmer sop; state to seek Centre, RBI help

Hyderabad: The Telangana state government will seek the help of the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India to arrange sufficient currency notes to disburse Rs 8,000 per acre per year cash incentive to farmers in the backdrop of state facing severe currency shortage in districts for the past three months.

The government has decided to credit the first instalment of Rs 4,000 per acre for Kharif season in May and Rs 4,000 for Rabi in October. The government needs to credit the amount in the bank accounts of 71.75 lakh farmers. It requires over Rs 5,600 crore cash for disbursement in May alone.

However, all the districts in TS have been facing severe cash crunch for the past three months due to which the disbursal of Aasara pensions came to a halt.

The payments for farmers have also been halted. Though the government credited the amount in bank accounts for farmers after procuring paddy and other agriculture produce from them, the farmers could not withdraw the amount due to currency shortage.

The state government is worried that when Aasara pension of Rs 1,000 could not be disbursed to 35 lakh beneficiaries due to cash crunch, how can it disburse Rs 8,000 per acre for over 71 lakh farmers.

The issue was discussed at length in the Cabinet sub-committee meeting held at the Secretariat on Monday. It was decided to meet Union finance minister Arun Jaitely and RBI Governor seeking availability of sufficient cash in state for extending cash incentive to farmers.

Farmers have to get Rs 5,600 crore by May-end
Agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy said, “The currency shortage for the past few months is a matter of concern for the government. We need to arrange over Rs 5,600 crore in May alone for disbursement to farmers. If sufficient cash is not available in banks by then, the scheme will not serve the desired purpose. Farmers need cash for crop investment and other agri-related works. With the onset of monsoon, the kharif activity will begin in June itself and cash incentive should reach farmers by May-end.” The government will send a team of senior officials to pursue the case with the Centre and RBI. 

“We will meet Union finance ministry officials and the RBI soon seeking availability of adequate cash in all districts by May. We are hopeful of Centre extending helping hand to TS, which is giving cash incentives to farmers for the first time in the country,” said C. Parthasarathi, agriculture secretary. 

In case, if cash problem still persists in May, the government is chalking out an alternative plan to extend the incentive through cheque to enable farmers to purchase seeds, fertilisers.