The Telangana Congress here on Thursday demanded that the TRS Government declare ‘Agriculture Emergency’ in the State.
Addressing the media at Gandhi Bhavan, Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir said having suffered heavy losses in two successive crops, the distressed farmers of Telangana demand that the State Government declare “Agriculture Emergency” to effectively handle the situation. Shabbir also accused both the Centre and State Governments of having failed to help the hapless farmers. “Deficient rainfall and erratic power supply caused heavy losses to farmers in Khariff season and the agriculture sector registered a negative growth of 21.30% in 2014-15. While the areas under food grains came down by 19%, oil seeds production got reduced by almost 11%. The sowing was reduced by almost 35% and farmers resorted to suicide after Khariff season. Despite this, the TRS Government neither declared affected mandals as drought-hit nor submitted a report to the Centre seeking financial assistance, he said.
Though farmers lost crops in over one lakh acres due to unseasonal rains in the last few days, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao remained silent and did not even call for a meeting of Disaster Management Committee to assess the damages, Shabbir Ali said. He also charged the State Government with failing to provide compensation to families of farmers, who committed suicide as per GO Ms No 421, issued by previous Congress Government in June 2004. He also pointed out that the neighboring Andhra Pradesh has increased the compensation amount from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh by replacing the GO 421 with GO Ms No 2014. The State Government should stand guarantee to the uncleared loans and ensure release of all documents to the farmers,” he demanded.
“The BJP-led NDA Government is pursuing the anti-farmer Land Acquisition Bill. It has also reduced the rice mill levy percentage from 75 per cent to 25 per cent. Further, it decreased the compensation for crop loss from Rs 10,000, paid during UPA regime, to Rs 6,800 per hectare”, he charged.
TPCC Kisan Cell chairman M Kodanda Reddy demanded that the TRS Government make clear its policy on crop insurance and food grains. He said the government should buy paddy and other crops, which were damaged in unseasonal rains, at the MSP. Deputy CLP leader in Legislative Council Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy demanded that the State Government release Rs 500 crore towards Market Intervention Fund to help the farmers affected due to unseasonal rains. By declaring Agriculture Emergency, the State Government should depute one Special Officer for each district to assess the damages and extend relief to the affected farmers, he said. (NSS)