Telangana tenant farmers demand immediate implementation of 2011 Cultivators Act
HYDERABAD: In a joint effort to support tenant farmers, eight political parties in Telangana urged the State Government to quickly implement the Andhra Pradesh Rights of Land Licensed Cultivators Act, 2011. To highlight this, the demand was raised at an all-party meeting at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram, organized by the Telangana Tenant Farmers Recognition Struggle Committee and led by its convenor, Prof. D. Narasimha Reddy.
The demand was made at an all-party meeting of political parties in Telangana held today at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram. The Telangana Tenant Farmers Recognition Struggle Committee organized the meeting, with Prof. D. Narasimha Reddy as convenor.
The statement said tenant farmers should be identified during the current Kharif season, following the rules set for the Andhra Pradesh Rights of Land Licensed Cultivators Act, 2011. Furthermore, the parties asked that tenant farmers be allowed to sell their crops directly to the government at the Minimum Support Price (MSP) using their identity cards.
Additionally, the parties stated that, before the Assembly session commencing on September 7, the government should complete any actions needed to initiate the identification of tenant farmers and issue an official notification announcing the process.
Leaders call for immediate support to tenant farmers
At the meeting, Prof. Haragopal, a leader of TPJAC, said tenant farmers are among the worst affected by the farming crisis. For this reason, he called for them to be identified and helped right away. He also supported the movement.
Studies show that tenant farmers make up over 36% of cultivators in Telangana, with about 22 lakh families involved. In addition, their numbers and the land they farm are both growing. Tenant farmers produce a large part of the state’s crops.
Recently, tenant farmers have faced more problems because the government changed farm schemes. For example, programs like PM-KISAN now use land ownership records and digital verification. This issue affects all districts in the state.
To recognize tenant farmers as cultivators, the undivided Andhra Pradesh Assembly passed the Andhra Pradesh Rights of Land Licensed Cultivators Act, 2011. Later, Telangana used the Act after becoming a state. The Act helped identify tenant farmers and gave them Licensed Cultivator Pass Books (LCPBs).
However, the Act has not been used in the state since 2017. Since then, in the last ten years, the number of tenant farmers has grown a lot. Because farm programs use OTP systems, many tenant farmers lose money. As a result, they cannot get farm supplies like fertilizer or sell their crops under their own names. They also miss out on other farm welfare schemes.
Leaders of various political parties said at the meeting that the issue of tenant farmers has become extremely important in Telangana and that all political parties need to respond to it.
They blamed the BRS government for stopping the Andhra Pradesh Rights of Land Licensed Cultivators Act, 2011, in 2017. According to them, this was a big injustice to tenant farmers. They also said it was unfair that the Rythu Bandhu scheme mostly helps land title holders, not actual farmers, even though it gives out thousands of crores of rupees.
The leaders thanked groups like Rythu Swarajya Vedika and the Telangana Tenant Farmers Identification and Rights Committee for studying tenant farmer problems, publishing reports, and getting support from other groups and political parties. In this way, these organizations have played a key role in raising awareness.
The political leaders also demanded that the government fulfil the promise made by Revanth Reddy, then President of the Congress Party, in his 2023 open letter to tenant farmers, as well as the commitment made in the manifesto and the Six Guarantees.
At the meeting, B. Kondal of Rythu Swarajya Vedika initiated the meeting, Vissa Kirankumar made a presentation, and speakers included Kanneganti Ravi of Rythu Swarajya Vedika, P. Shankar of Dalit Bahujan Front, and Skylab of the Kula Nirmoolana Porata Samithi.
