Telangana government yet to find clarity on Land Ceiling Act implementation
Hyderabad: There is still no clarity on the implementation of the Land Ceiling Act for distribution of Rs 4,000 per acre as cheques to farmers.
According to this Act, 50 acres of land is the maximum limit one can own. However, the government data shows that there are several farmers who own more than 50 acres and the government is yet to take a decision on how to deal with such farmers.
Recently, during verification, it was found that a whopping 854 ac-res was registered in the name of a single farmer in Warangal district. This would mean th-at this farmer will be eligible to claim 68.32 lakh every year. However, officials said this could be an error that occurred during data entry and it could be 8.54 acres which the officials are now reverifying.
Though Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao owns 85 acres of farmland in Erravelli, only 37 acres is on the name of the CM and the rest is held by his son and minister K.T. Rama Rao. The CM and his son are eligible for Rs 6.80 lakh sop every year. However, the CM already announced to give up the sop and urged all rich farmers to follow suit. But no major response has been received so far.
As of now, transport minister P. Mahender Reddy’s family and fin-ance minister Etela Rajender's family have announced to give up the subsidy.
According to the stati-stics of the agricultural department, 62 per cent of farmers in TS hold less than 2.5 acres of la-nd, 24 per cent own land between 2.5 and 5 acres, 11 per cent own between 5 and 10 acres, less than 3 per cent own between 10 and 25 acres and 0.88 per cent own more than 25 acres of land.
The Chief Minister calculated that if those who own land between 5-10 acres, 10-25 acres, and more than 25 acres give up the subsidy, it would mean 15 per cent of the 71 lakh farmers would have foregone the subsidy voluntarily.
The government has made it clear that the initiative will be voluntary and there are no plans to make it compulsory.
