Rs 5400 cr supplied to Telangana banks for farmers' scheme, says RBI

Hyderabad: The Reserve Bank of India on Monday said they ensured cash availability to the extent of 95 per cent in Telangana for the newly launched 'Rythu Bandhu' investment support scheme for farmers.

The Telangana government under the scheme, which was launched last month, provided input costs by giving them Rs 4,000 each for every acre for two seasons in a year through specially printed cheques. There were apprehensions that time about the availability of sufficient cash with banks.

The government allotted Rs 12,000 crore in the budget for the scheme. "We (RBI) have already supplied Rs 5,400 crore currency which is nearly 95 per cent of the scheme.

"The feedback has been very good. We have been taking feedback both from the bank and the State Finance Department. There were no complaints of lack of cash in bank branches."

"There may be issues with regard to names misprinting on cheques and mismatch between e-pattadar passbook and cheques. Those are being rectified by the state government," RBI regional director R Subramanian told PTI.

A senior government official had earlier said the scheme would cost about Rs 57,000 crore for the current season. Over 59 lakh cheques were printed by eight participating banks led by the SBI, and handed over to the state government for distribution, which had in turn handed over to the beneficiaries.

To a query, Subramanian said the currency situation in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana has improved now and the problem existed during April.

"There was the situation of cash scarcity in the first half of April. That was not just restricted to Telangana, but was seen in many other states also," he said.

"RBI clarified that it was not a case of logistical problem We are also supplying cash to banks specifically to load ATMs," the RBI official said.

If ATMs go dry, public has genuine reason to feel unhappy. The situation has definitely improved. We are getting the figures from States. The situation which was there in the first half of April is not there now," he explained.