Telangana Releases Rs.39 Crore Atmiya Bharosa Funds

The Telangana government has released Rs.39.74 crore under the Indiramma Atmiya Bharosa scheme to benefit 66,240 landless labourers. The fund transfer, which was temporarily halted due to the MLC elections, has now been processed for workers in the erstwhile Mahabubnagar and Ranga Reddy districts, where no election code is in place. The scheme, one of the Congress government's six key guarantees, provides Rs.12,000 annually to farm labourers in two instalments. The first instalment of Rs.6,000 was disbursed through direct benefit transfer. Initially, Rs.6,000 was released to 18,180 workers from selected pilot villages in each mandal.

The scheme was launched on January 26. The latest tranche of funds was released after minister D. Seethakka requested payments for



districts not under the election code. So far, 83,240 NREGS workers have received `50.65 crore. Payments for other districts will be processed once the election code is lifted. Beneficiaries were identified by using NREGS data. The landless labourers who had completed at least 20 days of work under the scheme were eligible for the scheme benefit. Telangana has 48 lakh NREGS job cards covering 92 lakh workers. 

Of these, around 25 lakh job cards are considered active, with 17.25 lakh families meeting the 20-day work criterion. However, 11.44 lakh of these families own land or hold Record of Forest Rights (ROFR) pattas. In all, the government has identified 5,79,452 eligible families, who are set to receive Rs.12,000 per year.