The party reiterated its allegation that the Agriculture Leadership Award being conferred upon the Telangana CM was totally fake.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy reiterated his allegation that the Agriculture Leadership Award being conferred by the Indian Council for Food & Agriculture (ICFA), "an organization of dubious background", upon Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao was totally fake.
"In the four years of his governance, KCR has pushed the farming community into its most serious crisis ever. The result of his failure to implement his assurances on loan waivers for them or provide MSP for them, and the lack of pro-active measures by the government to help the suffering communiuty, have led over 3,500 farmers to suicide. In this background, it is shocking that any worthwhile organization would present any agriculture achievement award to the CM. We leave accepting or not accepting the award to the wisdom of the Chief Minister," he said while addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Wednesday.
Reddy, along with TPCC chief spokesperson Dasoju Sravan, Vice-President Mallu Ravi and MLA A Sampath Kumar, gave a detailed power-point presentation on the ICFA and its antecedents. He said as per the records of the Registrar Of Companies, ICFA was a private organisation which was registered on 5th June, 2015. How could a company registered in 2015 claim that it had been giving awards from 2008, Reddy asked.
Reddy also said that ICFA is wholly and solely owned, controlled and funded by M J Khan, who had business interests in companies such as Concept Agrotech Consultants Limited and Bhagidhari Agrotech Private Limited which were essentially commercial organisations having business interests in agricultural and related activities.
ICFA had a board of directors consisting of three directors namely M J Khan, Alok Sinha and Sunil Kumar.
"While Sunil Kumar is the director in companies such as Azardica Foods Private Limited, N V Indian Agro Fresh Private Limited and Synergy Technology Private Limited, Alok Sinha is a director in various companies including National Multi-Commodity Exchange of India Limited, Entegra Limited etc. The ROC records clearly indicate that Entegra Limited has debts exceeding Rs. 280 crores, which do not appear to have been repaid," he pointed out.
Reddy said the ICFA's balance sheets, as on March 31st, 2016, showed that no payments/salaries were paid to employees and no expenses were incurred in promotional activities or for any activity of any nature in 2015-16. He asked how the ICFA was organising award ceremonies without any trace of expenditure.
He also pointed that the ICFA, in its brochure, listed organizing "networking dinners with ministers and other dignataries" as one its activities. "Is it a broker firm or a PR company?" he asked.
The TPCC chief also played an old video-clip of August 19, 2013, wherein Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was welcoming ICFA head M J Khan into the BJP fold.
He said that a fake award was being given by a letterhead organisation whose chief was affiliated with the BJP, and condemned the hype created around the award by the Chief Minister's Office. However, he said that he would not comment on the press release sent by Governor E S L Narasimhan wrongly mentioning that the Chief Minister was being given an award by the Government of India.
He informed that he would be writing a letter to agronomist M S Swaminathan, who was named as Chairman of ICFA's National Awards Committee, along with a report on the dilapidated condition of the agriculture sector in Telangana. He said that he would also be sending a letter to the Chief Minister along with the ROC documents on the background of ICFA.
When asked for his reaction on the agricultural committees being formed by the state government, Reddy alleged that the TRS government was trying to accommodate ruling party cadre in the committees and said that the process was not being implemented in a transparent and fair manner.
He said that there was no objection to the payment of Rs. 4,000 as input subsidy to farmers, but that the intention was dubious. "The TRS government did not extend any help to farmers during the last four years, and it is proposing to give an input subsidy of Rs. 4,000 per acre to farmers in an election year. This is nothing but an election gimmick," he said.