Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Monday said the Congress government has spent over Rs one lakh crore on farmers, including loan waiver and procurement, in the last 18 months since it assumed office.
He was speaking at an event at the Prof Jayashankar Telangana State Agriculture University (PJTSAU) here where he kicked off the disbursal of funds under the ‘Rythu Bharosa’ investment support scheme for farmers.
“With confidence, I will give an account for each and every paisa in the Assembly. The people’s government spent Rs one lakh crore in 18 months, including MSP on farmers’ produce, bonus on MSP, loan waiver, insurance for farmers, Rythu Bharosa (investment support),” he said.
Alleging that the previous BRS government had severely hurt the state’s economy by imposing a debt burden, he said the government would transfer about Rs 9,000 crore in nine days under the ‘Rythu Bharosa’ scheme despite the challenges.
The ‘Rythu Bharosa’ would benefit 70,11,984 farmers covering 1.49 lakh acres, Reddy said.
The Congress government is ready to challenge in every village on the crop loan waiver carried out by it in one year and the BRS government in 10 years, he said.
Charging that the opposition BRS sought to trouble the Congress government right from day one, he alleged that the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led party is “feeling happy” if any farmer dies by suicide or any deaths are reported even in road accidents or food poisioning incidents in state-run educational institutions.
The evil intention of the opposition party is to get power on the basis of such deaths, he alleged.
The CM asserted that agriculture should become profitable for achieving the state government’s vision of making Telangana a USD one trillion economy in the next 10 years.
Reddy, who directed state Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao to supply agriculture implements to farmers, favoured offering incentives and transfer of technology to the ryots.
Observing that the state government is spending about Rs 17,000 annually on free power supply to farmers, he said farmers would benefit if they instal solar pumpsets. They would not only get free power but also earn additional income by selling the solar power to the government.
He asked the Chief Secretary to conduct a conference with district Collectors to take steps to raise awareness of farmers on solar pumpsets and shifting to profitable crops as per soil nature and health.
