TS takes cue from AP, to scrap Adarsha Rythu scheme

Hyderabad: It looks like Andhra Pradesh and Telangana State governments, which have divergent views on several issues, are at least on the same page with regards to scrapping "Adarsha Rythu", the pet scheme of late Chief Minister YS Rajashekar Reddy. Close on the heels of Andhra Pradesh government scrapping the scheme on Saturday, the Telangana government is reportedly considering taking a similar decision.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is understood to have held discussions in this regard with Agriculture department and has given indications to stop the scheme in the newborn State.

At present there are nearly 16,000 'model farmers' in Telangana State. Introduced by YSR in 2007, model farmers were paid a remuneration of Rs 1,000 per month to act as facilitators at village-level for agriculture development. Over the period, Adarsha Rythu’s recommendation became mandatory for farmers to get agricultural benefits.

The Telangana State government is of the opinion that Congress party misused this scheme to fill model farmer posts with party activists, without any agriculture background, in many districts. Later, complaints of corruption and misuse of the farmers for the political purpose plagued the system. In addition, there were allegations on model farmers relating to issues like enumeration lists, disbursement of input subsidy and allotment of farm implements among others. All these factors seemed to have made TRS government to abolish this scheme, sources said.