Hyderabad: TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s much publicised farm income claim has kicked up a row.
Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu ridiculed Rao’s claim, saying that if the expected farm income was true, the farmers in the state should hand over their lands to the TRS chief for cultivation. “Let the farmers give away all their lands and claim Rs 5 lakh per acre.
Let Rao keep the remaining Rs 95 lakh income. Rao’s claim of making crores through farming is ridiculous,”?Naidu remarked during an informal chat with the media in the Assembly lobby on Saturday. Naidu and other TD leaders exaggerated the figures in mockery.
Rao’s 59-acre farm and farm income has become the hot topic of discussion in the Assembly lobbies, ever since Rao invited select media to his modern farm in Medak district.
Rao had claimed that there is a possibility of earning Rs 5-8 crore from his 59-acre farm this season through potatoes and coloured capsicum if the market is good. He claimed to have sown potatoes in 45 acres and capsicum in 10 acres. Rao had said that the income he claimed from it worked to be between Rs 10 to Rs 15 lakh per acre.
Several TD and Congress MLAs said the income claim was dubious. “It will be great if Rao shares his farming techniques with the farmers and help them reap a rich harvest. How can you people believe such an absurd claim? Naidu said.
There was no stopping Naidu. He hit harder saying, “When farmers across Telangana are crying over lack of remunerative prices for their farm produce, how come Rao alone is claiming huge profits? Does it not give room to the speculation that the whole exercise is aimed at converting black money into white?”
A TRS legislator countered the derisive remarks with, “If Naidu could earn RS 2,000 crore through sale of milk and curd, why can’t a progressive farmer make a few crores?
Though KCR is yet to get the money for his farm produce, it has already raised shackles in political circles. Telugu Desam legislators E. Dayakar Rao and M. Narasimhulu alleged that Rao was using the farm as a cover to convert his ill-gotten wealth from black to white.
TRS legislator K. Eshwar hit back at Rao’s detractors. “Narasimhulu’s comments are like that a man bitten by a mad dog. TD leaders are trying to distract people from the burning Telangana issue by attacking Rao,”?he said.
Dayakar Rao said that he too owned a farm and had spent Rs 50 lakh on it but could not get even Rs 5 lakh as returns. “Rao is trying to take people for a ride. He is getting seeds, fertilisers, tractors free and asking traders to purchase it at higher rates,”?he alleged.
