Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Thursday announced a Rs 10,000 per acre relief and rehabilitation assistance for crops devastated by recent unseasonal rainfall.
The State government will issue a total of Rs 228.25 crore on Thursday evening, and the distribution of financial aid will begin as soon as possible by district administrations.
On Thursday, the chief minister informed reporters at Ravinutala village of Bonakal mandal in Khammam district that financial help will be given to all crops equally. He stated that standing crops on around 2.28 lakh acres were destroyed in the state, with maize affecting 1.29 lakh acres. He stated that the crop loss report will not be provided to the Government as a protest for its previous refusal to provide crop loss assistance to Telangana.
“We don’t want to rely on the Centre since it takes at least six months to reply. The Centre has never responded positively to farmers who suffered as a result of natural disasters. On behalf of the State government, we would provide Rs 228 crore in relief and rehabilitation assistance to farmers,” KCR stated. Chief Secretary A Santhi Kumari has been asked to make the required directives in this regard.
The Chief Minister stated that steps would be taken to ensure that tenant farmers received the financial assistance provided by the government by amending the rules as needed. He went on to say that the decision not to seek aid from the central government was made because the Modi administration was renowned for its ‘anti-farmer’ policies and the state’s petitions have previously fallen on deaf ears.
Agriculture minister S Niranjan Reddy, transport minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar, Rythu Bandhu Samithi chairman MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, chief secretary A Santhi Kumari and MP Vaddiraju Ravichandra accompanied KCR during his aerial inspection of the areas.
Warangal district collector VP Gautham and district agriculture officials briefed the minister about the extent of the loss caused by the rains and said, “as many as 10,324 acres of cultivation land was damaged affecting the livelihood of 7092 farmers in Bonakal Mandal alone.”
‘In addition to that land damage, crops on 31,027 acres were damaged affecting 22, 000 farmers,” briefed the district collector.
Following the tour, KCR scheduled his visit to different villages in Mahabubabad and Karimnagar districts to assess the crop damage.
BRS district president MLC Tata Madhusudan, MLAs S Venkata Veeraiah, L Ramulu Naik and K Upender Reddy, ZP chairman L Kamal Raju and others were present.
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