Ryot's stash leaves family in tears!

HYDERABAD: A farmer in Mahbubnagar district over the years squirreled away money, probably in the hope of springing a delightful surprise on his family. But that was not to be. The staggering stash of 96 lakh only left them shell-shocked. His two sons have been left scratching their heads as to how to account for this huge sum of money now.
The big revelation came in the family in the wake of demonetisation of 5,00 and 1,000 notes and the sons, it is learnt, are scared of being asked to account for the money lying at their home.
“Our advice to farmers is to deposit whatever money they have in the bank. If they do not do it, their money will be worthless,“ a wellknown public representative who is also involved with agriculture, said.
The farmer told his sons of how he saved every rupee he could over the years and the sons are in shock as no one in the family knew just how much money the family has been sitting on, the public representative said.
The sons did not know about the stash until their father himself told them about it in the aftermath of demonetisation.
Farmers, especially the better off and wealthy, who always dealt in cash are now in a state of confusion on what to do next.
The same is the case with farmers rearing sheep and goat. On an average, a shepherd earns anywhere between ` 4,000 and ` 7,000 for each sheep or goat he sells. For someone who sells 100 such animals every six months, the cash on hand works out to ` 8 lakh to `14 lakh a year. It is learnt that some shepherds are heading to some petrol bunk owners who are taking the cash from them and promising to repay them 70 per cent of the money, with the rest being their commission for converting it into white money.
“One thing that farmers are fearing the most is that if they deposit money in the banks, they will not be able to get loans or even white rations cards and associated benefits since this shows that they are rich,“ a former minister said.