Rythu Bandhu delays perturb farmers

Kodangal: Several farmers are still kept waiting for input subsidy under ‘Raithu Bandhu’ scheme to be deposited in their accounts. With the High Court giving permission to deposit input subsidy for Rabi crops, district agriculture officials have gathered the bank details of the farmers and fed the data online, but most of the farmers in the district are yet to receive the subsidy. Farmers were told that they would receive a message to their mobile phones as soon as the money is deposited, but most farmers are yet to receive any message on bank deposit. 

In Vikarabad District alone, an amount of Rs 2.23 crore is supposed to be deposited in about 1.81 lakh accounts of farmers. However, money was only deposited in around 29,000 accounts of the farmers, so far. With inordinate delay in payments, farmers are perturbed and are disappointed by the lack of proper response from officials.  On the other hand, local officials say that they have no role in the transfer of money, and that it is up to senior officials to respond on the issue. It seems to be that money was deposited in the accounts of only a few farmers whose bank details registered online in the first phase. 

Only 20 to 30 farmers in each mandal received input subsidy in their accounts. According to official figures, money was deposited only in 29,000 accounts in the district, which is less than 25 per cent of total accounts. The reason for not depositing the money could be due to shortage of cash, or technical glitches in depositing money in the accounts.