Hyderabad:The state government has identified 15 lakh landless agricultural labourers based on MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) job cards to provide financial assistance of ₹12,000 per year under the Rythu Bharosa scheme.
This amount will be disbursed in two installments, the first of ₹6,000 likely to be distributed as a Sankranti gift, official sources said.
The government is also reviewing the annual income limits for issuing new ration cards. Currently, the income limits are second only to Kerala, which has a higher threshold for eligibility.
According to official statistics, Telangana has 53 lakh MGNREGA job cardholders, but only 32 lakh are active workers. The Aadhaar-based payment system (ABPS) is used for wage disbursal, ensuring payments are made directly to workers' bank accounts.
Of the 53 lakh job cardholders, only 32 lakh have completed Aadhaar seeding with their job cards and bank accounts. Preliminary verification by revenue, panchayat raj, and agriculture departments revealed that 15 lakh active workers were landless agricultural labourers. This facilitates direct benefit transfer (DBT) under Rythu Bharosa to their bank accounts.
In the initial phase, these 15 lakh active landless agricultural labourers will receive the financial benefit. Those excluded in the first phase will be included in subsequent phases after thorough ground-level verification.
The state government plans to issue new ration cards after Sankranti, fulfilling a long-pending demand. The previous BRS government issued ration cards in 2015 but failed to follow through on subsequent promises in 2018 and 2021. Lakhs of families have been awaiting new ration cards to access subsidised rice at ₹1 per kg.
Each household member is entitled to 6 kg of rice monthly. The Congress government, has pledged to supply 'sanna biyyam' (fine rice) starting from Ugadi, instead of the 'doddu biyyam (coarse rice), which is often resold by beneficiaries illegally at higher prices to poultry, beer industry etc.
The Congress government also plans to increase the annual family income limit for ration card eligibility. The current limit is ₹1.5 lakh for rural and ₹2 lakh for urban households. The proposed enhancement could raise the limit by ₹20,000 to expand coverage, bringing Telangana closer to Kerala’s uniform limit of ₹3 lakh.
