Hyderabad: In a bid to reach out to farmers and farming unions of Telangana, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has formed a nine-member committee headed by former agriculture minister S Niranjan Reddy, to tour the state for a month starting from January 24.
“The outcome of the effort is to submit a report to the state government, the Telangana Farmers’ Commission, and BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), so that constructive work could be done to help the farmers in distress,” said party working president KT Rama Rao (KTR). He was addressing the media after a preliminary meeting of the BRS committee which deliberated on the tour at Niranjan Reddy’s residence on Wednesday, January 22.
The committee comprises former ministers Jogu Ramanna, Satyavathi Rathod, and Puvvada Ajay Kumar, and former MLA Rasamayi Balakishan, among others.
The tour will begin from the erstwhile Adilabad district and cover all districts in the state by the end of February when the report is submitted.
“There was a lot of hope on the Congress’ Warangal Rythu Declaration unveiled by the party’s MP Rahul Gandhi before the Assembly elections. A year has passed and there is a need to understand whether all the promises made by the Congress to the farmers have been fulfilled,” KTR said.
He said that the inspiration for forming the farmers’ committee was the suicide of a farmer in Adilabad town a couple of days ago, where he had consumed pesticide inside the bank unable to clear his farm loan.
Clarifying the intention of the committee was not to play politics but to find ways to address the agrarian crisis KTR said the committee will address issues such as whether the promised loans have been waived, whether the farmers are receiving crop input assistance through Rythu Bharosa, minimum support price, bonus for fine grain paddy, irrigation, free and uninterrupted power, and whether the Rythu Vedikas built during the BRS government were functioning as intended.
Rythu Maha Dharna on January 28
KTR said that the Telangana High Court has allowed BRS to hold Rythu Maha Dharna on January 28.
“On one hand the chief minister says that anybody is free to protest and on the other hand they deny us permission to hold a dharna with the excuse of traffic disruptions. It is ok if the chief minister, along with all the ministers protest in front of the Raj Bhavan on a busy road, but it is not ok to protest at Nalgonda Clock Tower,” he said sarcastically.
BRS gave 6,47,000 ration cards, claims KTR
On the ongoing exercise of issuing new ration cards and Congress’ claim that for the past 10 years, no ration cards were issued, KTR stated that 6,47,000 ration cards were given during the two terms of the BRS government.
“We were not publicity mongers. But Congress thinks that by saying the same lie again and again it can make the people believe. What happened to the 1.06 crore applications that the state government received during the Praja Palana campaign on December 23?” asked KTR.
KTR alleged that during the gram sabhas, people questioned the state government about its failures and in many places pulled down tents erected during these meetings.
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