Farmers may get financial assistance through cheques: Minister

Hyderabad: Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy said that the Cabinet Sub-Committee would soon finalise its report on modalities for distribution of financial assistance of Rs. 4,000 per acre per season for all farmers across Telangana State.

Speaking to media persons on Wednesday, Srinivas Reddy said the State Government has gathered views of 62,377 farmers from 624 villages in 551 mandals of Telangana State on the appropriate method to extend financial assistance to them. He said a majority of farmers wanted the payment through cheques. He said that these views would be incorporated in the report of Cabinet Sub-Committee which would be submitted to Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao.

Srinivas Reddy, who heads the Cabinet Sub-Committee, said that the farmers would start getting the financial assistance for farming from next crop season. He said as per Revenue Records, there were 71.75 agricultural accounts in the State which covers nearly 1.42 crore acres of land. He said almost 97.2% farmers hold more than 10 acres of land.

The minister said that the new scheme would be implemented in a transparent manner and no irregularities would be tolerated anywhere in the implementation mechanism. He said since huge cash is required for the scheme, a delegation led by Finance Minister Etala Rajender would soon meet Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley seeking directions for Reserve Bank of India to provide required cash in rural banks of Telangana.