Most Irresposible, KCR Blasts Modi Govt

Accusing the BJP-led Centre of being anti-farmer, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao blamed it for the suicide of 700 farmers in the recent past. He said that the Centre was being irresponsible in discharging its duties towards the farming fraternity.

KCR slammed the Centre for not finalising the quantity of the parboiled rice it would lift from the state. The CM even staged a dharna demanding that the Centre should buy paddy produced in Telangana but to no avail.

He claimed that the TRS leaders were ‘Rythu bandhuvulu’ and that the BJP was ‘Rythu Rabandu’ party. KCR attributed the jump in procurement of paddy from 10.09 lakh tonne on an average during 2004-2013 to 69.38 lakh tonne between 2014 and 2021to the rise in production of the crop as the TRS government has been providing water without cess, free power round-the-clock and quality seeds to the farmers.

He claimed that the only state in the entire country providing water without cess to the farmers was Telangana and that it was their government alone which invoked PD Act against dealers selling spurious seeds.

He criticised Union minister Kishan Reddy, who belongs to the state, for failing to ensure that the Centre purchased parboiled rice from the farmers in Telangana. He should work like a soldier to achieve this goal but it is unfortunate that he is incapable of it and instead, he is faulting the TRS government of providing spurious seeds, KCR said.

The government procured 141.08 lakh metric tonne paddy last year and it is the highest quantity in the last decade, he said.

After formation of separate Telangana, the extent of paddy cultivation increased to 104.3 lakh acres (in last 7 years) from 49.27 lakh acres in united Andhra Pradesh, he claimed.

At the same time, KCR said that Union minister Piyush Goyal should be ashamed looking at India standing in the 101st position among 116 countries in the Global Hunger Index. Neighbouring Pakistan is at the 92nd position while Bangladesh and Nepal are at the 76th position, KCR informed.

On one hand, the country is starving but the Union minister says that they have paddy stocks piled up in the godowns, the CM pointed out. In 2016, India stood at 96th rank in the same Index but dropped to 101st position in 2020 and this reflects that hunger has increased under the NDA rule. Poverty also increased in the country.

If the leaders are committed to serve the underprivileged people, the Centre should buy the paddy from states and distribute it free of cost to the needy, he suggested.

KCR also fumed at the power reforms the NDA government was planning to introduce in the country. They want metres fixed at all the borewells, else they are saying that they would cut the loan limit of the state. It is more like blackmail, he said.

Once the power reforms are introduced, the Centre will have control over electricity supply in the entire country and this could deprive the Telangana farmers of 24×7 power, he said and asked if such ulterior motives could be called reforms.

If the farmers, common man and the poor should survive, they should drive away the BJP from the country. The BJP-led centre took loans worth Rs 80 lakh crore in the last seven years, KCR said.

The only area which benefited under Modi rule is the corporate sector, he added.