Reacting to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s statement that a ‘surprise gift’ was awaiting farmers, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President, N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said the CM should first fulfil old promises.
Addressing a video-conference with party Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies at Gandhi Bhavan, Mr. Reddy said the Chief Minister was good at “misleading people” and the statement made at the inauguration of Kondapochamma Sagar project was just to grab headlines and divert people’s attention.
Mr. Reddy asked Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao to first fulfil the promise of crop loan waivers of up to ₹1 lakh and also pay Rythu Bandhu assistance to all farmers without imposing any conditions. He reminded that nearly 40% of farmers were being deprived of Rythu Bandhu aid on one pretext or the other.
He said that the farmers neither got proper Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their produce nor the Market Intervention Fund of ₹1,000 crore earmarked in the annual budget was ever utilised to support the farmers. No assistance was provided to families of 4,500 farmers who committed suicide since 2014.
Further, he said that the farmers never got any compensation for crop losses following natural calamities like drought or unseasonal rains. “And the surprise gift will be just a mirage,” he said.
The TPCC chief claimed that the Chief Minister was deceiving the people by showing the ayacut of Sriramsagar Project as of Kaleshwaram’s. Telangana farmers benefited only with the irrigation projects constructed during Nizam era and Congress regime.
Mr. Reddy demanded the Chief Minister to withdraw the new agricultural policy which forces the farmers to grow crops suggested by the government. The move was dictatorial in nature and does not guarantee any protection to farmers’ investments in a crop, he added.
