Retired Supreme Court Justice and INDIA Bloc’s candidate for Vice-President election B Sudershan Reddy had some words of caution for the state government with regard to the implementation of the Licensed Cultivators Act (LCA) of 2011, and Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s promise to the tenant farmers in Telangana before coming to power.
The ‘Telangana Tenant Farmers Survey 2026′ which was released at the Basheerabad Press Club on Tuesday, witnessed strong emotions from former professors, jurists, social activists and farmers’ organisations.
The report can be downloaded below:
Final English_Tenant_Farmers_Survey_ReportDownload
Tenant farmers spoke about the issues they have been facing without being provided with the Loan Eligibility Cards (LEC), and more on the occasion.
Tenant farmers speaking on the difficulties they are facing in farming, during the release of Telangana Tenant Farmers Survey 2026, at Basheerbagh Press Club on Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/FxPHQbwmmh— The Siasat Daily (@TheSiasatDaily) June 9, 2026
Remember your promise, your own Act
Addressing the gathering, Sudershan Reddy reminded that when Revanth Reddy was the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president, he had written an open letter to the then chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on September 13, 2023, demanding that the tenant farmers be issued Loan Eligibility (LEC) cards and all government support schemes be extended to them.
He also pointed out the Warangal Declaration made by Congress before the 2023 assembly elections on extending Rythu Bharosa (formerly Rythu Bandhu) scheme to tenant farmers. The declaration had become part of Congress’ election manifesto.
“This is not just help. It is the recognition for their hard work. It is a matter of self-respect for them,” Sudershan Reddy said, on the need to implement LCA.
He wasn’t alone in expressing his displeasure at the Congress for not implementing its guarantee for the past 2.5 years.
Simple solution, restore Column 16 in Pahani
Sudershan Reddy said that the demand should be to bring back the Column 16 (the cultivator’s column) of the Pahani (Adangal), or in simple terms, the revenue records; that was removed in the Dharani revenue portal introduced during the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government.
The column identifies the person who is in actual physical possession, and cultivating the land during the given agricultural year.
Even after the Dharani portal was replaced by Bhu Bharati portal after Congress came to power, the cultivator’s column hasn’t been restored.
“The column has been there in the pahani since the times of the kings. There were no issues with it in the undivided Andhra Pradesh, and even in the first term of the state government after the formation of Telangana. So what happened now,” he wondered.
He opined that if Column 16 was restored, it will help in identifying the tenant farmer, so that the benefits could be extended to that farmer.
Also ReadTelangana farmers must prepare for drought: Agriculture Minister
Where did 1 lakh acre Bhudaan lands go!
Retired Justice B Chandra Kumar was as anguished as anybody else in the room, as there has been a persistent demand for the implementation of the progressive Act since its implementation was discontinued in 2015, after the formation of Telangana.
“90 percent of the farmers who died by suicide were tenant farmers,” he noted, also stressing that it was the very reason why The Hyderabad Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1950 had been enacted.
Questioning what happened to 1 lakh acre Bhudaan lands that were meant to be given to the poor and marginalised farmers; he demanded the state government to identify, reclaim and distribute them to the actual tillers, who he affirmed, were the tenant farmers.
Not all at once: Telangana Rythu Commission Chairman
Telangana Farmers’ Commission Chairperson M Kodanda Reddy, who was at the receiving end of the words of caution, that were more like a warning to the Congress government; said that it wasn’t possible to deliver all the demands being put forth by them, and expressed hope in getting them delivered one by one.
Explaining the history behind the enactment of the Licensed Cultivators Act, Kodanda Reddy said that the groundwork began in 2004 during the Congress government led by former chief minister Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
He said that the then government, with an intent to study the reasons behind farmers’ suicides at the time, had appointed the Ram Chennai Reddy Commission, which had found that suicides were more among the tenant farmers.
“The commission had found that farmers securing loans with high interests from private money lenders had died by suicide because of the insults they were facing from the money lenders,” Reddy noted.
He said the commission had observed that it was happening even while the Telangana Money Lenders Act has been in its place, recommending that interest needed to be charged as per the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) guidelines.
Reddy said that upon day-long deliberations held in the undivided AP assembly in 2011, when N Kiran Kumar Reddy was the chief minister, the Board of Revenue and the RBI’s representatives were also present.
He said only after thorough deliberations the LCA of 2011 was enacted.
Bankers need guarantees: Kodanda Reddy
Speaking about the present Congress government led by Revanth Reddy, he said that during the State Level Bankers’ Meetings (SLBC), the bankers were apprehensive whether the tenant farmers could repay their loans of provided through Loan Eligibility Cards (LEC) as per the 2011 Act.
“We suggested that the bankers could take guarantees from let’s say, a group of 10 tenant farmers, if any of them wanted to secure a bank loan,” he revealed.
He said that his commission had written to the state government to bring amendments to the LCA of 2011.
He also disclosed that after the launch of Bhu Bharati portal, the landlords/land owners were apprehensive about giving in writing any document, or any signature to give rights to the tenant farmers taking their lands on lease, and how such a legislation would affect them.
“Every year the number of tenant farmers has been on the rise. We can’t afford to neglect them. If they don’t get any support, agriculture will suffer,” he stressed.
Activists who spoke on the plight of the tenant farmers were equally dissatisfied with the explanation given by Kodanda Reddy, though they held him in high respect.
So what was Congress’ LCA, Warangal Declaration
“Didn’t the then Congress government know about the backlash from the landlords when it had enacted the LCA in 2011? It has been 15 years and we are still talking about implementing the legislation brought by Congress bit by bit and not in its entirety? Are the governments sincere when they bring a legislation or when they make assurances in their election manifesto to implement the laws created by their own parties,” asked Shankar Peddalingannagari, president of Dalit Bahujan Front.
He warned that the present government will “go home in 2 years,” if they don’t implement this crucial commitment they have made to the tenant farmers, who belong mostly to the Dalit, Adivasi, Banjara and Backward Classes in Telangana.
Zero farmers’ suicide in Telangana false
Rythu Swarajya Vedika (RSV) founding member and social activist Kanneganti Ravi politely corrected Kodanda Reddy that the LCA of 2011 was meant to give rights to the tenant farmers, and not those who were exploiting them.
“For decades we have been serving the interests of the landlords. Now is the time to realise the aspirations of tenant farmers in Telangana,” he urged.
1/3rd Telangana agriculture budget going to non-cultivators
Kiran Vissa, leader of Rythu Swarajya Vedika (RSV) which has been instrumental in working on the farmers’ suicides in Telangana and AP since 2011, has pointed out that a third of Telangana’s state budget on agriculture sector was being spent to support those who were not cultivating their lands, while the tenant farmers were being left to fend for themselves.
Because of the loan eligibility cards not being given to the tenant farmers in Telangana, he claimed that on average of tenant farmers cultivating 5 acre cotton, in the absence of getting the Minimum Support Price (MSP) as set by the Centre; they were losing Rs 64,000 per season.
He also calculated that the loss for a tenant farmer cultivating soybean in 5 acres was coming to Rs 53,120, and for maize, the loss was at a staggering Rs 87,800 per 5 acres.
He sought to know who has been gaining by putting the farmers at a losing proposition, when the national chorus for the past 15 years has been about doubling the farmers’ incomes.
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