Declare Agriculture Emergency, demands Congress

Hyderabad, April 16 (INN): The Telangana Congress on Thursday demanded that the Telangana Government declare 'Agriculture Emergency' in the State.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir said that having suffered heavy losses in two successive crops, the farmers of Telangana are in extreme distress and therefore, the State Government should declare "Agriculture Emergency" to effectively handle the situation.

He accused both, the Central and State Governments, of having failed to help the farmers. "Deficient rains and erratic power supply caused heavy losses to farmers in Khariff season. The Agriculture sector registered a negative growth of 21.30% in 2014-15. While the areas under food grains came down by 19%, oil seeds production got reduced by almost 11%. The sowing was reduced by almost 35% and worst conditions drove more than 700 farmers to suicide after Khariff season. Despite these losses, the TRS Government neither declared drought-hit mandals nor submitted a report to the Centre seeking assistance," he said.

"Due to unseasonal rains in the last few days, the farmers lost crops spread over more than one lakh acres. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has maintained a criminal silence on all these damages and did not even call for a meeting of Disaster Management Committee to assess the damages," said Shabbir Ali while accusing the Chief Minister of treating farmers like enemies. He said that the State Government did not provide compensation to families of farmers who committed suicide as per GO Ms No 421, issued by the then Congress Government in June 2004. He said that the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh has increased the compensation amount from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh by replacing the GO 421 with GO Ms No 2014.

"At one side KCR is declaring Telangana as the richest and revenue surplus State. But contrary to these claims, he is avoiding payment of compensation to the families of deceased farmers and also hesitant to increase the compensation amount," he said. Further, he said that by clearing loan waiver amount in installments, the Chief Minister enslaved the farmers for a period of four years. Since their previous loan amounts are yet to be cleared, the banks have not released the farmers' documents. Consequently, they are unable to apply for fresh loans. The State Government should stand guarantee to the uncleared loans and ensure release of all documents to the farmers," he demanded.

Shabbir Ali also ridiculed the tour of Union Ministers to different districts of Telangana to assess the losses due to unseasonal rains. He said mere visits by Union Ministers would not help the distressed farmers. "The BJP-led NDA Government is pursuing the anti-farmer Land Acquisition Bill. It has also reduced the rice mill levy percentage from 75 per cent to 25 per cent. Further, it decreased the compensation for crop loss from Rs 10,000, paid during UPA regime, to Rs 6,800 per hectare. It also reduced the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) or did not increase it as per inflation. Instead, of shedding crocodile's tears, the Union Ministers should get a good relief package for Telangana farmers," he demanded.

TPCC Kisan Cell chairman M Kodanda Reddy demanded that the TRS Government make clear its policy on crop insurance and food grains. He said that government should buy paddy and other crops, which were damaged in unseasonal rains, at the MSP. He also questioned KCR's silence on Land Acquisition Bill and alleged that the Chief Minister was supporting the anti-farmers' law.

Deputy CLP leader in Council Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy demanded that the State Government release Rs 500 crore towards Market Intervention Fund to help the farmers affected due to unseasonal rains. By declaring Agriculture Emergency, the State Government should depute one Special Officer for each district to assess the damages and extend relief to the affected farmers, he said.