Buying Crops From Farmers Is Not A ‘HELP’ CM Sir

[Anta Assamey]

The YCP government projecting itself as a farmer-friendly government appears to be making false claims of being helpful to the ryots. In fact, it is doing little but manipulating with the figures to make it appear as a huge benefit to the farmers.

The ad released ahead of granting the Rythu Bharosa funds revealed that the YCP government is claiming that the funds released by the Centre as that spent by the state. The government claimed that it had spent nearly Rs 1.33 lakh crore towards the welfare of the farmers in the last 3.4 years. Of this, Rs 45,899.63 crore was spent on purchasing paddy and Rs 7015 crore on buying other crops, which means about Rs 53,000 crore was spent on purchasing crops alone.

In reality, a major portion of the agri produce bought by the civil supplies department is supplied to the Food Corporation of India and the funds required for it are borne by the Centre. The funds given by the Centre are then deposited into the accounts of the farmers. Similarly, the crops bought by the Markfed are either exported or used by the state for use in other departments in the state. Now, the YCP government had claimed even these funds also as the state’s help to the farming community. Further, the government also mentioned that it had repaid some loans taken by the TDP government and included them also as ‘help to the farmers’.

The YCP government had also mentioned that it was transferring Rs 4,000 into each of the beneficiaries’ accounts of which Rs 2,000 was contributed by the Centre. Jagan government had been putting even the Centre’s contribution into its account.

Significantly, on Monday, Jagan pressed the button releasing the Rythu Bharosa funds in Allagadda minutes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the PM Kisan funds in Delhi. The money released by Modi had been deposited into the accounts of the farmers immediately but those released by Jagan are yet to be received by the farmers. Reportedly, only 20 per cent of the beneficiaries said that money released by Jagan was deposited into their accounts, by 9 pm yesterday.

Moreover, the government’s claim regarding the number of farmers who benefited from Rythu Bharosa kept varying. In 2019-20, the government identified around 46.96 lakh farmers’ families eligible for receiving the benefits from the scheme. In 2020-21, it jumped to 51.59 lakh and the government had given input subsidy to them. In 2021-22, the number increased to 51.38 lakh.In 2022-23, the government claimed that it had released the first tranche of Rythu Bharosa funds to 50.10 lakh families. However, in the ad published, the government said that it was depositing money into 50.92 lakh accounts through direct benefit transfer and Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy pressed the button for the same.

Surprisingly, in the same ad, the government made another claim saying that it had extended the Bharosa benefit to 52.38 lakh farmers including SCs, STs. Minorities and others. In 2021-22, around 52.38 lakh farmers received Bharosa funds but now, it reduced to 50.92 lakh raising doubts about what had happened to the remaining 1.46 lakh beneficiaries.