Podu land farmers seek RBS benefits

Kothagudem: The Podu land farmers have urged officials to provide them patta passbook and also input subsidy under Rythu Bandhu scheme. On Friday, a large number of Podu land farmer visited ITDA and Collector offices to submit their application requesting officials to conduct survey of their land and provide Rs. 4,000 under RBS.

According to official sources, the Podu farmers from the neighbouring villages and mandals have been doing rounds of government offices for three weeks. They visit ITDA and Collector offices and also attend the Grievance Day meeting and Grievance programme to put their demand before the officials.

In their applications they only request officials officer to conduct resurvey of their lands and implementing the scheme to their lands. The government have already announced names of 21,723 Podu land farmers to implement the scheme in the district released an amount of Rs. 31 crore for distribution to the farmers under RBS.

The government officials have already distributed Rs. 24 crore input subsidy under the scheme to the 16,529 farmers in the district, said the Abhimanyudu, Assistant Director with the Agriculture department. The remaining amounts will be distributed in coming days he said.

The officials said that during the past thirty days, after the announcement of the Rythu Bandhu scheme, the department received 18,000 applications form the Podu land farmers in the ITDA office.

The farmers who are living in the Bhadrachalam ITDA limits, in various mandal of Bhadrachalam, Kothagudem, Mulugu, Kalluru and Khammam across 382 villages have appealed to the government to conduct survey of the lands, provided the pattadar passbooks and input subsidy according to the scheme.

But, as per records, the officials identified some more Podu farmers and submitted a list for sanctioning the RBS for them in the next phase of RBS. They identified 214 more farmers holding 17,816 acres in the district. On the other hand, all parties supporting the Podu farmers on the issue. The parties’ leaders are conducting dharnas and rallies demanding implementation of the RBS.

Significantly, after the implementation of ROFR Act in the state in the year 2005, the officials identified the government land and forest land in the district. So the government eleased patta passbook and input subsity on that basis, said officilas.

The CPI leader Kunamneni Sambhasiva Rao demanded officials to conduct survey of the Podu lands in the district. He appealed to the government to implement RBS and apply it to every tribal farmer.If the government does not implement the RBS for the Podu land farmers, the CPM party will stage protects against the government decision in all mandals.

When asked, Bhadrachalam MLA Sunnam Rajaiah said the government will implement the Rythu Bandhu scheme for the benefit of every tribal farmer wha has Podu land.