KCR Defends TRS Men As Members Of Farmer Samithis

Stating that the TRS activists had fought for the achievement of a separate Telangana state and had faced several hardships in the process, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao today said that the government would certainly appoint TRS activists as members of the Rythu Samanvaya Samithis (RSS).

He also said that the Rs 8,000 per acre for two crop seasons would be given to only original farmers and not to tenant farmers, and that the government would remove the landless from the Rythu Samanvaya Samithis.

Giving a reply to the short discussion on the Rs 8,000 per acre scheme for farmers and the Rythu Samanvaya Samithis (RSS) on Monday in the Assembly, the Telangana Chief Minister alleged that the previous united Andhra Pradesh governments had adopted criminal negligence towards the Telangana farmers, and said that all his govrnment's schemes were intended to right the wrongs, the Samithis included.

Refuting the stances of the Congress and the TDP that there was no need for RSSs, the Chief Minister asked the TDP member Sandra Venkata Veeraiah why the previous TDP government had then appointed Rythu Mitra Teams in 2003. He also asked Congress MLA G Chinna Reddy why the then Y S Rajasekhar Reddy government had appointed Adarsha Rythu Committees and Indiramma Committees.

KCR said that the TRS government was appointing the RSSs with TRS activists to ensure that the development which was being obstructed by the Congress through all its court cases was not derailed. The RSSs would be filled with the committed TRS activists, and would not interfere in revenue issues like purification of land records etc, the CM said.

At this juncture, Chinna Reddy alleged that the government had basically transformed the RSSs into TRS village committees, and hence the Congress was protesting and staging a walkout. The Congress members left the House.

Reacting to it, the Chief Minister alleged that the Congress members had staged the walkout to obfuscate their own political future.