Naidu Proposes Rival KCR’s Farm-Friendly Schemes As Agenda for Grand Alliance

Hyderabad: Keeping the grand alliance in mind, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has urged leaders of all opposition parties who attended Mamata Banerjee’s “United India” rally to keep farmers happy.

Stating that the alliance’s agenda has to be farmer-friendly, Naidu has proposed a massive welfare scheme for them.

Sources said, soon after the mega rally in Kolkata, he met the leaders and talked about some of the schemes that are being implemented in the neighbouring state of Telangana.

He discussed the flagship programmes of the K Chandrashekar Rao government, like “Rythu Bandhu/ Bima” yojana, which he said helped KCR come back to power with a thumping majority in the recent assembly election.

The “Rythu Bandhu” scheme gives every farmer an investment assistance of Rs 8,000 per acre in two installments. While campaigning, KCR promised to pay 10,000 per acre from the next financial year.

“Rythu Bima” is an insurance scheme through which families of deceased ryots will be given Rs 5 lakh.

Naidu told the leaders the Andhra Pradesh government is working on a pension plan for the state’s farmers.

Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and DMK leader MK Stalin is said to have appreciated Naidu’s initiatives.

Some states already have their own agriculture-friendly programmes. While the Mamata Banerjee-led Bengal government has the “Krishak Bandhu” programme that gives financial assistance of Rs 5,000 per acre in two installments to farmers, in Jharkhand, peasants with less than one acre of land receive Rs 5,000 under the Mukhyamantri Krishi Ashirwad Yojana. Bihar too has the Rajya Fasal Sahayata Yojana.

Even the Union government is trying to implement some financial assistance scheme for farmers. The guidelines of the scheme are to be finalised.

As of now, farmers in Telangana are biggest beneficiaries of government programmes.

“Our party always thinks about agriculture. Naidu is a visionary leader. We will definitely demand implementation of farmer-friendly schemes from our alliance partners,” AP Food Corporation chairperson Neelayapalem Vijaya Kumar told News18.

Hyderabad-based economist Papa Rao told News18, “There is nothing wrong in helping farmers financially, but what matters is how much does it help in the long run. Governments have to work on making agriculture profitable.”