- Andhra Pradesh
- Annadata Sukhibhava
- Budget
- Chandrababu Naidu
- KCR
- Modi
- Rythu Bandhu
The much-awaited agricultural investment support scheme from the Andhra Pradesh government headed by chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, on the lines of Rythu Bandhu of the Telangana government, has turned out be a big disappointment.
Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, who presented Vote on Account Budget-2019 in the state assembly on Tuesday, announced “Annadata Sukhibhava” scheme to provide financial support to farmers by direct cash transfer into their accounts.
However, this is a poor imitation of Rythu Bandhu of the K Chandrasekhar Rao government of Telangana.
While the Telangana government has announced earmarking of Rs 15,000 crore in the budget to provide assistance to the extent of Rs 10,000 per acre to each of 58.30 lakh farmers, the Naidu government allocated a meagre Rs 5,000 crore for the Annadata Sukhibhava scheme for 2019-20.
The modalities of the implementation of this scheme is not known, but it is certain that the number of farmers in Andhra Pradesh are more than in Telangana and the extent of cultivable land is also much more. So, the allocation should have been definitely more than that in Telangana.
Apparently, Naidu government is imposing certain conditions for the implementation of Annadata.. scheme, on the lines of the Narendra Modi government government at the Centre, which introduced PM-Kisan scheme which is applicable to farmers having only less than five acres of land per family.
May be, Naidu does not want to provide cash assistance to rich farmers having hundreds of acres of fertile land and restrict it to only small and marginal farmers.
Besides, the Naidu government has enhanced input subsidies for paddy, sugarcane, cotton and groundnut crops from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000, for maize from Rs. 8,333 to Rs. 12,500, pulses and sunflower crops from Rs. 6,250 to Rs. 10,000. This is expected to benefit 39.33 lakh farmers.
Other pre-election sops of Naidu include: allocation of Rs 50 Crore to set up Kshetriya corporation, Rs 500 crore for acquisition of land for house sites, Rs 400 crore assigned for the development of MSME sector, Rs 100 crore set aside for the infrastructure development in municipalities and enhancement of unemployment assistance fromRs 1,000 to Rs 2000.
