Hyderabad: Nalgonda MP and senior Congress leader N Uttam Kumar Reddy expressed strong concerns about the ‘unfulfilled’ promises made by the BRS government and the BJP-led Central government towards Telangana’s farmers.
He was speaking to media persons after inaugurating the Paddy Procurement Centre of Singaram Primary Agricultural Cooperative Society in the Huzurnagar constituency on Wednesday.
Uttam Kumar Reddy took both governments to task for failing to deliver on assurances such as a Rs 1 lakh loan waiver and a crop insurance scheme for Telangana farmers. He voiced his disappointment over the unpaid Rythu Bandhu dues for farmers with holdings above 10 acres and Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s (KCR) ‘forgotten promise’ of free fertilisers.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2016 promise to double farmers’ income by 2022 has fallen significantly short of expectations. Not only has the income failed to double, but when taking inflation into account, farmers’ income has actually decreased,” he said.
The Congress MP alleged that the Modi government has further burdened farmers by imposing GST on agricultural equipment and input materials. Additionally, despite falling international crude prices, the price of diesel has increased by over 60%, adding to farmers’ woes, he said.
“Initially, the goal was to increase farmers’ household incomes from an average of Rs 8,050 per month in 2015-16 to Rs 21,146 by 2022. Unfortunately, the country is far from reaching this target, and many farmers claim that farming has become unprofitable in the current situation,” he said.
Uttam Kumar Reddy argued that the BRS government’s inability to waive off crop loans up to Rs. 1 lakh has left most farmers unable to secure fresh loans from banks. He pointed out that, despite knowing from 2014-2018 that crop loan waiver schemes do not benefit farmers if divided into different phases, the BRS government repeated the act, splitting it into six to eight phases. So far, Reddy said, crop loans up to Rs. 35,000 have been waived.
“At this pace, it would take the BRS government another five years to completely waive off the remaining loans,” he added.
The MP added that more than 8,000 farmers have committed suicide since 2014, with fewer than 80 receiving compensation under GO 421. Reddy dismissed the Rythu Bandhu scheme as ‘mere hype’, asserting that the Rs. 5,000 per acre support provided does not genuinely aid farmers.
Uttam Kumar Reddy lambasted both the BRS government in Telangana and the BJP government at the Centre for ‘neglecting’ over one lakh farmers affected by recent unseasonal rains.
“While chief minister KCR announced a compensation of Rs. 10,000 per acre, he contested that the relief package lacked a scientific basis, as it was declared without official teams surveying the damaged areas and providing a final report on crop losses,” he said.
He emphasized that compensation should account for cultivation costs, yield per acre, and income for different crops, such as paddy, maize, and mango. “It has been more than three weeks since rains and floods damaged crops spread over lakhs of acres of land. Where is the report about the enumeration of losses?” he asked.
The MP accused KCR of using the compensation to mask the absence of a crop insurance scheme in Telangana, which would have offered affected farmers a more substantial relief package. He divulged that a majority of affected farmers are still awaiting their Rs 10,000 compensation. He also claimed that the BRS government has not requested compensation from the Centre for the thousands of crores in crop losses suffered by farmers over the past nine years.
Uttam challenged the chief minister to disclose the reports of crop losses submitted to the Centre in the last nine years.
Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that both BRS and BJP leaders are engaging in the game of allegations and counter-allegations only to keep the people’s attention ‘diverted from their failures’. However, he said that the Congress party would continue to raise the voice of common people under all circumstances.
