Telangana Marketing minister Harish Rao promised money in 48 hrs to farmers

Hyderabad: The Telangana state government, which is paying Rs 4,000 per acre per season to farmers, owes the community Rs 1,500 crore in the form of money not paid for purchasing paddy from them.

The remaining districts have arrears in the range of Rs 6 crore to Rs 93 crore.

Marketing minister T. Harish Rao had promised to credit the amount in the bank accounts of farmers within 48 hours of procurement. Against the massive dues, the government has been releasing money at the rate of Rs 10 crore.

Though the payments by civil supplies corporation is somewhat better, there is a long delay in the case of procurement made by other agencies like Markfed and Indira Kranthi Patham centres run by women self-help groups.

Officials are trying to blame the mounting arrears on staff in procurement centres for delaying the uploading of details of farmers and their bank account numbers in the tablet computers specially provided to them.

The state marketing and irrigation minister took a serious view of the issue and directed officials to clear the arrears within a week.