Rythu Bandhu propelled paddy production in Telangana

Hyderabad: Telangana State Planning Board vice-chairman B Vinod Kumar on Saturday said that the transfer of money to the accounts of farmers as part of Rythu Bandhu scheme and the resultant money circulation in the rural economy even during the pandemic not only made Telangana number one State in the country in producing paddy, but also brought in its wake a wide range of beneficial outcomes.

The Planning Board VC and Finance Principal Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao addressed the newly-recruited junior assistants, who were undergoing an induction training programme at Dr MCR HRD Institute of Telangana. They said that the innovative initiatives conceptualised and executed under the leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao made Telangana a leader in multiple domains, which can be emulated by other States from across the country.

Vinod Kumar said that in the combined State of Andhra Pradesh, people suffered on account of long spells of load shedding. However, the Telangana State has addressed this menace successfully and thereby emerged as an electricity-surplus State, he said.

The Planning Board VC said that while the irrigation projects were instrumental in finding an enduring solution to the problems of water scarcity, the big push to education, especially through residential mode, and launching of an array of welfare schemes resulted in multifarious achievements in the social sector.

Ramakrishna Rao lauded the efforts of employees of Telangana State for their hard work during the pandemic times in successfully transferring money to the accounts of lakhs of households, which involved extensive coordination with multiple stakeholders, including different wings of government, banks, National Payments Corporation of India, etc. He stated that in future, the dependence of people on agriculture would reduce and they would migrate to urban areas. He, therefore, underlined the need for formulation of more and more schemes of self-employment and entrepreneurship for them.