Bhatti Vikramarka Assails KCR For "Duping" Farmers

Congress leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka today slammed the Telangana government and alleged that it was "cheating" the farmers of the state in the name of its much-hyped Rythu Bandhu scheme.

Speaking while interacting with the farmers of Kaddam village in Adilabad, the leader also alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had stopped the subsidies provided by several schemes that had been introduced by the preceding Congress regimes of undivided Andhra Pradesh.

"The people of the state, especially the farmers, have now understood the frauds committed by the CM. The Rythu Bandhu scheme for instance is helping only the landlords and farmers with huge landholdings covering hundreds of acres that are sometimes barren. It is not helping the real farmers. Our farmers are not even being able to recover their investments from the money they make through the sale of their produce. They are suffering because the state government is not providing the subsidies that were introduced by earlier regimes. The TRS government has needlessly scrapped these older subsidy schemes after the launch of the Rythu Bandhu program," he charged.

Vikramarka also faulted the CM and his government for "failing" to "maintain" the projects of the previous governments.

"KCR has changed the design of Sadarmat Check Dam Project launched by the Congress in undivided Andhra Pradesh. Not only that, he has also been unable to ensure the upkeep of the ayacut of the Kaddam project which the earlier Congress-led regimes had so carefully maintained. The current government has even fired 101 of the 130 employees involved in the maintenance works. This shows the government's apathy and negligence towards irrigation and farming concerns in the state," the leader alleged.

He then lambasted the CM for "failing" to stand by the farmers of the state, by not standing up against the Centre's three new farm Acts.

MLC T Jeevan Reddy, former MLC Premsagar Rao and state Kisan Congress Cell Chairman Anvesh Reddy also took part in the program, organised by the CLP as part of its Raitulatho Mukhamukhi program (face-to-face interactions between party leaders and farmers).

Yesterday, Vikramarka met the farmers in Bhimsari in Adilabad district as part of the program.