The Telangana Congress demanded that the government immediately convene a special session of the Assembly and Council to discuss the farmers' issues.
The Leader of the Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Monday demanded that the state government immediately convene a special session of the Assembly and Council to discuss the farmers' issues, as the latter were heading for crop failure for the third consecutive year.
Speaking to mediapersons at the Congress Legislature Party office along with MLC Ranga Reddy, Shabbir Ali expressed displeasure over Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao skipping the farmers' issue in his Independence Day speech.
"The Chief Minister did not mention the suicides of over 1,000 farmers. He gave no assurance to those who lost their crops or those who committed suicide. There was also no response on the demand for an increase in the ex gratia as per GO 421," he said.
He further said that KCR could not speak for even 14 minutes on his 14-month rule so far. His short speech was tantamount to confession of his failure to run the administration.
"His promises of two bedroom houses, KG-to-PG free education and 12% reservation for Muslims and STs too failed to find a mention in his speech," Shabbir Ali said.
Due to bad weather conditions and the government's apathy, the Telangana farmers had lost three consecutive crops, he lamented. The drastic cut in sowing area during the last three seasons also had a negative impact on the overall production, and Telangana was heading towards acute shortage of food grains, pulses and other products, he said.
"Let's set aside political differences and sit down for a while to find solutions to the problems being faced by the farmers. Continuous decrease in agriculture production will directly affect the people, and might lead to abnormal increase in the prices of all essential commodities," he said.
He further pointed out that despite identifying 332 of 459 mandals as rain-deficient last year, the government had failed to declare any drought-hit mandals.
As per the Drought Manual, 103 mandals qualified to be declared as drought-hit. But due to the indifferent attitude of the government, the list was not sent to the Centre, when five other States, including Andhra Pradesh, got financial assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for drought-hit districts.
The Centre had provided Rs 237.51 crores to Andhra Pradesh for seven drought-hit districts, and Telangana, too, would have got similar assistance had it declared districts as drought-hit, he said.
Ridiculing the Grama Jyothi scheme launched by the Chief Minister on Monday, he said that KCR should have conducted Rythu Sadassus.
The Congress leader said that it was strange that KCR had time to inspect police and garbage-lifting vehicles, but was not free to hold review meetings on farmers.
"We will extend full cooperation if KCR takes any steps to help the farmers," he said.
He also added that the government should also clarify whether it had shelved "Mana Vuru, Mana Pranalika" or replaced it with Grama Jyothi.