Hyderabad: Telangana Congress leaders on Sunday demanded that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao immediately convene a session of the Assembly to discuss farmers issues.
TPCC president N. Uttam kumar Reddy, working president Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Leader of Opposition in Assembly K. Jana Reddy, former PCC chiefs Ponnala Laxmaiah and V. Hanumantha Rao told mediapersons at Gandhi Bhavan that the farming community had suffered huge losses on account of four years of drought and due to the recent rain and floods in many parts of the state.
They said the government’s own preliminary estimates showed that crops in 4,45,792 acres had been damaged due to rains. They alleged that the government had not released the third annual instalment of crop loan waiver, which had further aggravated the plight of farmers who were being refused fresh loans by banks.
They said that Mr Chandrasekhar Rao instead touring the districts to ascertain the facts from farmers had confined himself either to his farmhouse or camp office. He had even failed to take the situation to the notice of the Centre which would have deputed teams to assess crop damage.
Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy said Mr Rao having failed to convene a high level meeting with officials on the recent rain should come to the aid of farmers by announcing compensation for crop damage. He criticised the government for its failure to contain the distribution of spurious seeds by private seed manufacturers.
