Hyderabad: The Telangana state Congress on Thursday launched a bitter attack on Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, terming the Rythu Bandhu scheme an election gimmick. TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy, speaking to mediapersons along with party leaders, asked why Mr Rao had not implemented the scheme in the last four years. The TPCC chief said the TRS government had become a bane on farmers. In the last four years, about 4,000 farmers had committed suicide but the state government had not paid compensation to their families, he alleged.
Mr Reddy said that Mr Rao had announced that he would waive Rs 1 lakh agricultural loans at one go, but had later divided it to four phases. The process was still not complete, he said. He said in the last four years, the state government had presented four Budgets totalling Rs 6.75 lakh crore, and had borrowed Rs 2.5 lakh crore. Despite this, it had not waived farmers’ loans.
He said the farmers sh-ould be given Rs 4,000 per acre and the government should also provide remunerative price for their crops. After the Congress comes to power in 2019, it will waive '2 lakh loan per each farmer at one go, the TPCC chief said. He said the Congress government would provide minimum support price for crops and funds will be allocated in the Budget for the purpose. Mr Mohamed Ali Shabbir, deputy leader of the Congress Legislature Party and Opposition leader in the Council, said after the Congress comes to power it would help tenant farmers.
