A Harvest of Handouts

KCR goes all out on quotas and sops to consolidate his party’s position in the 2019 assembly polls. But mounting state debt could play spoiler

- Amarnath K. Menon

CHIEF MINISTER K. Chandrasekhara Rao is in a hurry. On a sweltering Sunday, April 16, the Telangana legislature sat for the whole day and made history of sorts by increasing the reservations for Muslims in the state from four to 12 per cent, and for Scheduled Tribes from six to 10 per cent.

In another unprecedented decision, just three days earlier, on April 13, he took even his cabinet colleagues by surprise by announcing that farmers in the state will be provided fertiliser at state expense from the next kharif. All 5.5 million farmers in the state, both big and small, will get Rs 4,000 an acre annually for purchase of fertilisers from the next financial year. It is apparently one of the most radical measures ushered in since Independence for the farming sector. Of course, it will cost the state about Rs 6,000 crore a year.

Earlier, on April 11, fulfilling a key pre-poll promise, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government released Rs 4,000 crore as the final installment of the Rs 16, 374 crore crop loan waiver scheme benefiting over 3.6 million farmers. “The slew of measures, including fertiliser grant, loan waiver, quality power supply and improved water sources will lead to sustainable farming in the state,” says state agriculture minister P. Srinivas Reddy.