Bust Spurious Seeds Trade: Renuka Chowdhary

In the wake of the recent protests by several chilly farmers against the inter-state spurious seeds trade which caused heavy losses to the farming community, Telangana Congress MP Renuka Chowdhary expressed her concerns over reports of these seeds flooding markets in the Khammam, Nalgonda and Warangal districts of the State, at an "unprecedented" level.

Speaking to the media at Gandhi Bhavan here on Thursday, she slammed Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for "allowing" and "protecting" the companies that were producing spurious seeds.

"The fake seed racket is thriving only due to the laxity of officials of the agricultural sector. These seeds have resulted in the failure of growth in chilly plants in around 25,000 acres of land spread over 20 mandals in Telangana. Strict action should be taken against these officials. Also, the government should immediately revoke licenses granted to the errant firms. KCR should heed to farmers' wishes and arrest the owners of the firms," Chowdhary demanded.

She demanded that the State government compensate the affected farmers by supplying high quality seeds for free to the farmers. She also demanded that the government give them alternative work under the NREGS.