Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, who conducted an aerial survey of the four rain-affected districts of the state on Thursday, announced Rs 10,000 per acre financial assistance to farmers whose crops were damaged by unseasonal rains and hailstorms last week, while criticising the BJP government at the Centre for showing little concern for farmers other than doing politics.
Financial assistance was extended to even tenant farmers for the first time, marking a substantial shift in the Chief Minister's stance towards them.
After undertaking an aerial survey of the rain-affected areas of Khammam, Warangal, Mahbubabad, and Karimnagar districts and interacting with farmers, the CM stated that crops covering 2.28 lakh acres had been damaged and that financial relief of Rs 228 crore will be provided to farmers.
Speaking to the media in Khammam, the Chief Minister stated that the state government will not submit crop loss reports to the Centre in protest for its failure to release crop loss assistance to Telangana in the past, and that the state government would bear the burden of financial assistance for farmers on its own. Rao elaborated on the extent of crop loss caused by the unseasonal rains, stating that crops over an area of 2,22,250 acres were destroyed, with maize accounting for 1,29,446 acres, paddy 72,709 acres, mango 8,865 acres, and other crops accounting for 17,238 acres.
“If we go by Centre’s norms on extending financial assistance for crop loss due to rains, farmers will not get any big relief. What the Centre provides is insufficient. For maize, it pays just Rs. 3,332 per acre, for paddy, Rs. 5,400, and for mango, Rs. 7,200. This is by no means enough for farmers,” he remarked.
Further, Rao stated that the Telangana government had been providing free electricity, free irrigation, and waived off irrigation water cess arrears levied by previous governments. “We have initiated these measures for the welfare of farmers, to strengthen agriculture, and to make agriculture profitable. These measures produced positive outcomes, and Telangana is now one of the top producing states in the nation for agriculture. Keeping this in view, we have decided to extend Rs 10,000 per acre relief to farmers who suffered crop loss due to recent heavy rains," he announced.
The Chief Minister slammed the BJP-led government at the Centre, accusing it of being indifferent to farmers and farmers' needs despite Telangana experiencing heavy rains and crop losses multiple times in the previous years. “We made repeated requests to the Centre to release funds to extend flood relief to farmers. They say they will send the Central teams to assess crop loss. No one knows when those Central teams will come. Sometimes they take more than six months.
Even if they conduct surveys and submit reports to the Centre on crop loss, there is no guarantee that the Centre releases funds to the state. For this reason, we have now decided not to submit crop loss reports to the Centre nor request for their funds in protest against their callous attitude towards farmers," Rao remarked.
The CM also came down heavily on the Centre for not bringing an effective crop insurance scheme in the country, accusing that the existing insurance schemes benefit insurance companies more than the farmers.
Further, Rao directed Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari to take steps to ensure that tenant farmers receive the financial support extended by the state government by making required amendments in the rules as the state government has removed tenant farmer column from the ‘pattadar’ passbooks by amending the Revenue Act in 2018.
