Hyderabad: Agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao on Tuesday, June 25, alleged that the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government wasted public money to the tune of Rs 26,670 crore in the disbursement of 12 tranches of Rythu Bandhu crop financial input assistance in its rule.
He announced that as promised, the state government was going to give Rs 15,000 per acre per annum for farmers, upon careful screening of the tillers and the area under cultivation.
The ‘Rythu Nestham’ virtual meeting with farmers across the state that was held in Dr BR Ambedkar Telangana State Secretariat got a good response from the farmers. The farmers who attended the meeting gave some valuable advice to the state government about the mistakes made during the previous government, which could be rectified now.
The farmers informed the minister that the small and marginal farmers, who form 93 per cent of the beneficiaries under the scheme, were not getting even 68 percent share in the financial benefit.
The farmers and their leaders informed that the tenant farmers who formed 17.5 percent of the total farming community, were neglected by the previous government.
During a planning meeting to frame the budget proposals for agri-related schemes like crop loan waiver, Rythu Bharosa (Rythu Bandhu earlier), crop insurance scheme, handlooms and textiles held at the Secretariat, deputy chief minister Bhatti Vikramarka said that the state government was planning to allocate maximum budget for agriculture and its allied sectors.
He believed that agricultural growth would spur production and in turn, increase the farmers’ incomes and the state’s revenues.
The officials of the agriculture and horticulture departments informed Vikramarka that budget spending on drip irrigation could have many positive impacts on the sector.
Nageswara Rao has also announced Rs 400 crore for the modernisation of looms in the state (handlooms) through the BC welfare department in the annual budget of 2024-25.
He also revealed that orders worth Rs 255.27 crore came from TESCO to purchase from various government departments. He blamed former handlooms and textiles minister KT Rama Rao (KTR) for being negligent towards the sector, which had resulted in the handloom products not getting promoted through e-marketing.
He said that though the previous government ignored the disbursement of subsidy for the yard, the present government has released Rs 33.23 crore as subsidy on yarn for handloom weavers.
He also reminded KTR, who wrote an open letter on Tuesday alleging that the State government was responsible for the deaths of weavers in the State, that it was the Congress government which released Rs 100 crore out of the pending Rs 351.52 crore that was outstanding from the previous government, to be paid to TESCO.
