Fulfill Old Promises To Farmers First: Congress To KCR

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday demanded that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao first fulfill the old promises that he had made to the farmers before giving them any "surprise gift".

Reddy was referring to KCR's announcement while inaugurating the Konda Pochamma Sagar project yesterday.

Addressing a video conference with the party's ZPTCs at Gandhi Bhavan, Reddy said that the Chief Minister should seriously introspection before making another promise to the farmers as none of the promises that he had made in the past had been fulfilled.

He demanded that the Chief Minister first fulfill the promises of waiving off crop loans of up to Rs 1 lakh, procuring the entire paddy and maize crop output at an MSP, and clearing the dues of the red gram farmers.

He said that neither had the farmers got proper a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their produce nor was the Market Intervention Fund of Rs 1,000 crore earmarked in the annual budget ever utilised to support them.

Claiming that nearly 40% of farmers were being deprived of the Rythu Bandhu amount on one pretext or the other, he also asked for Rythu Bandhu assistance to all farmers without any conditions.

Reddy also alleged that no assistance was being provided to the families of more than 4,500 farmers who had committed suicided since 2014 under the TRS regime. Further, the farmers of the state had also never gotten any compensation for the crop losses due to natural calamities like droughts and unseasonal rains.

He pointed out that chilli farmers in Khammam had been arrested, tortured and jailed for demanding better prices for their produce. Similarly, farmers in Medak and other districts were caned when they held protests against erratic power supply.

He said that the list of crimes committed by KCR regime against the farmers was too long, and that KCR should not try to cheat the farmers further by making another fake promise.

The TPCC president also said that the Chief Minister should withdraw the new agricultural policy which forced the farmers to grow crops recommended by the government. He said that the move was dictatorial in nature and did not guarantee any protection to the farmers' investments in the recommended crops.

Reddy claimed that the farmers of Telangana were doing their cultivation due to the irrigation projects constructed during the Nizam's era and Congress regimes. He said that the KCR government did not construct a single project that really benefited the farmers. He alleged that the Kaleshwaram project was constructed only to get commissions and kickbacks from the contractors, and that the Chief Minister was deceiving the people by showing the ayacut of the Sriram Sagar Project as that of Kaleshwaram.

He claimed that KCR always made fake promises and false claims to deceive the people, and that his "surprise gift" for farmers would be just another mirage.