The Cabinet constituted a sub-committee comprising ministers to vet a policy to provide crop insurance to the farmers.
Published Jul 16, 2024 | 9:14 PM ⚊ Updated Jul 16, 2024 | 9:14 PM
A farmer in Andhra Pradesh. (iStock)
In what should come as music to the ears of tenant farmers, the Andhra Pradesh Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday, 16 July, decided to make them eligible for crop loans.
The Cabinet, which had taken a decision in principle to this effect, decided to study the problem further and evolve a mechanism by which the tenant farmers would also get crop loans. The Cabinet also discussed issuing tenant farmer cards to them.
Information and Public Relations Minister K Parthasarathi, briefing reporters on the decisions taken at the Cabinet meeting, said that the plight of the tenant farmers who could not get crop loans, since they do not own the land, was discussed at length.
Referring to the Land Titling Act which the previous government had ushered in, he said the Cabinet approved the proposal to repeal it.
“The farm loans had not been advanced to the BCs, SCs, and STs who mainly constitute tenant farmers. In the absence of support from the government, the tenant farmers had been put to great difficulty in raising capital,” the minister said.
The Cabinet constituted a sub-committee comprising the Finance, Civil Supplies, and Agriculture ministers to vet a policy to provide crop insurance to the farmers.
Parthasarathi deplored the lack of sensitivity of the previous government for not even paying premiums for farmers’ crop insurance.
The Cabinet discussed at length the difficulties faced by farmers at the time of procurement of their paddy.
“Under the previous government, the farmers were assigned mills which were far off for taking their paddy. For the last Rabi paddy, the government is yet to pay ₹1,600 crore to farmers,” the minister said.
“To alleviate their suffering, the Cabinet cleared a proposal to release ₹1,000 crore immediately to make payments to them. The government will raise a loan of ₹2,000 crore in due course for making payment to the rest of the farmers and to attend to other requirements” Parthasarathi said.
He said that for the current Kharif season, the Cabinet approved a proposal to provide a guarantee to the agriculture department to raise a loan of ₹3,200 crore to make payments for the paddy procured from them.
Meanwhile, describing the Land Titling Act as the most abominable legislation ever made, he said it had given ample scope to snatch lands from the people.
“The small and marginal farmers and the owners of parcels of residential lands were afraid of what would happen to their property since the Act laid down that the owners should be given only copies and the original documents should be kept with the government at the time of conferring the title to the land,” Parthasarathi said.
He said that one other provision of the Act making the high court the appellate authority for anyone who raises a dispute with the decision of the government on ownership of land, by-passing lower courts, was against the interests of the people.
The minister said that in the first place, the very provision that anyone could be posted as a land registration officer to confer titles to lands gave ample scope for misusing the Act.
There was no mention of whether the one who would be issuing the titles to land holdings would be a government officer or one nominated by the government, which reeked of the malafide intent of the previous government, he added.
The Cabinet, by another decision, ratified the new free sand policy that had been ushered in the state.
Under the new policy, sand is free and whoever is in need of it could take the required quantity from the notified sand reaches.
“The government did not intend to earn any revenue under the new sand policy. It is a goodwill gesture to the people,” the minister said.
The I and PR minister said that the Cabinet noted with concern the way the previous government had given scope for looting of sand in the state.
In the name of agreement with companies, “others” had quarried sand and moved it out, to profit personally, the minister said.
Under the new policy, the people do not have to pay anything except a nominal amount of seigniorage to the panchayat where the sand reach is located, he said.
After the official business, the chief minister is understood to have warned the ministers against meddling or interfering in sand quarrying in the state as it had the potential of damaging their image as had happened to those at the helm in the previous government.
He asked the ministers to liaise with MLAs and ensure that the “government’s good work” reaches the people.
The Cabinet is understood to have decided to convene the Assembly sessions from 22 July.
After the Cabinet meeting, Naidu left for Delhi to attend a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and several other ministers on Wednesday to seek support for the state “which is on the road to recovery from the ill-governance of the previous government”.
Naidu is expected to seek incentives for the industry that showed interest in investing in Andhra Pradesh. The other issues that he might raise include the release of funds for the early completion of the Polavaram project and Amaravati capital development.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil)
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