Hyderabad: Soon after the Congress government withdrew the notification for acquiring land for establishing a pharma village in Lagcherla village in Kodangal constituency, chief minister A Revanth Reddy announced that the government would establish an industrial area there.
Addressing a public meeting held in Mahabubnagar on Saturday, November 30, the concluding day’s ceremony of the three-day “Farmers’ Festival” being held as part of “Praja Palana Vajrotsavalu”, CM Revanth assured farmers that the state government would offer Rs 20 lakh instead of Rs 10 lakh for land acquired to set up the industrial area. He also said that the move would generate 25,000 jobs, benefitting families whose land was used to set up the industrial area.
He spoke about the recent incident Lagcherla protest where government officials including the district collector were attacked after several agitating farmers opposed the coming up of Pharma City, an industrial area project, citing it would take away their lands and threaten their livelihoods.
CM Revanth blamed leaders of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) for inciting the attack on government officials.
“Will the history have mercy on me if I give away your land to someone else? Will history pardon me if I am unable to bring industries into this region and create employment as a chief minister?” he asked.
Recalling the tragic case of Malla Reddy, a farmer who set himself ablaze after his land was taken away for the construction of Mallanna Sagar reservoir in Vemulghat village during the BRS rule, CM Revanth dared Siddipet BRS MLA T Harish Rao to visit the deceased farmer’s house.
He also dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) to debate and prove if there was any other state in the country that waived off farm loans amounting to Rs 21,000 crore for 25 lakh farmers within a year.
He said that he was willing to debate the farm loan waiver being implemented by the Congress government on the floor of the Assembly in the upcoming Winter Session.
“I never served as a minister in any government in power, but you made me the CM. It is a great opportunity for us which has come 70 years after Burgula Ramakrishna Rao was made the first chief minister of the state representing the Palamuru region,” Revanth said.
He urged the ministers who were present on the dais to release Rs 20,000 crore for the Palamuru region in one year through the green channel so that pending projects could be completed and the region could be put on the path of prosperity.
He said that Rs 1,83,000 crore spent on irrigation projects during the BRS government, among which Rs 1,00,002 crore was spent on Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) alone.
Revanth Reddy alleged that of the ₹11,000 crore farm loan waiver implemented by the BRS during its previous term, only ₹2,500 crore accounted for the principal amount, while ₹8,596 crore was merely deducted as interest on the loans. He argued that if the BRS government had waived ₹1 lakh per farmer in the first year of its tenure, it could have fully covered the principal amounts of all farmers’ loans.
“In the first five years of the BRS rule, the loan waiver implemented was not even enough to cover the interest. Just before the end of its second term, they sold away the Outer Ring Road toll and tried to implement the loan waiver. That was also left undone,” he said.
CM Revanth declared that implementing Rs 2 lakh farm loan waiver and providing free electricity to farmers was the patent of the Congress.
The chief minister inspected around 150 stalls that were set up to educate farmers about the latest technologies and other information during the three-day farmers’ festival.
He released cheques worth Rs 2,747.67 crore to waive off the loans of 3,13,897 farmers whose crop loans haven’t been waived yet, during the farmers’ festival.
He also laid foundations and inaugurated various developmental works at a cost of Rs 1,143.53 crore on the occasion.
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