On Republic Day, when the State government launched four welfare schemes, it charted a new path bringing in a category of beneficiaries that didn’t exist so far.
For the first time in the Telangana’s history, the government launched a scheme for landless agricultural labourer families under the Indiramma Atmiya Bharosa. Through this scheme, financial assistance of ₹12,000 would be provided per year. The first instalment of ₹6,000 was paid on Monday with the initial beneficiaries being 18,180 agricultural labourer families.
On the first day itself, the Finance Department released ₹10.91 crore for this scheme, which was launched in 563 selected villages in all mandals across the State. The deposits will continue and the identified beneficiaries will be covered by March 31, as announced by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.
“This is a unique scheme for the landless poor who were left out by the BRS government despite several representations from the Congress party. In fact, former chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao even refused to acknowledge their presence for passing on the financial benefits,” Sama Rammohan Reddy, Media head, Telangana Congress claimed.
Another benefit that is part of the four schemes is the issuance of ration cards, whose sanction was skeletal in the last 10 years. However, the government now claims to have issued 15,414 new ration cards in 531 villages benefiting 51,912 new members. In addition, 1.02 lakh existing cardholders have applied to add new family members. In the ongoing exercise, it has registered an additional 1,03,674 family members for cards, resolving the issue pending for several years.
One of the major promises of the Congress government was the Indiramma Houses and it kicked off the scheme providing house documents to 72,000 poor people on the first day of the launch.
Officials said 6,15,677 eligible people benefited on the spot for all four schemes on the first day, including the Rythu Bharosa scheme. The Finance Department released ₹579 crore for Rythu Bharosa on the first day benefiting 4,41,911 farmers in 563 villages in 32 districts. Rythu Bharosa was paid for land covering an area of 9,48,333 acres.
