HYDERABAD: The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) organised Rythu Bandhu celebrations on a grand note across the state on Monday. Ministers, TRS MLAs, MLCs, MPs and others took part in the celebrations as Rythu Bandhu completed the Rs 50,000 crore milestone on Monday. Ksheerabhishekams (pouring milk) were performed to portraits of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao in the Assembly constituencies to thank him for implementing Rythu Bandhu uninterruptedly since May 2018 despite financial constraints from March 2020 due to Covid. There were celebrations also on social media platforms with the hashtag #RythuBandhuKCR trending in the country on Twitter on Monday.
Khammam farmers created a massive 1,800 square feet portrait of the Chief Minister with vegetables at Burhanpuram Vegetable Market to express gratitude to the latter.
The party organised celebrations at NTR Stadium in Hyderabad which was attended by Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and ministers T. Harish Rao, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Mahmood Ali etc.
Speaker, who is supposed to be apolitical as per parliamentary conventions, also talked about politics by lashing out at BJP national leaders who are visiting Hyderabad for making criticism against the TRS government and the Chief Minister. Although the Speaker did not name any party, he said some leaders coming from other states were criticising the Telangana government and asked them to implement better schemes for the welfare of farmers in their respective states first before commenting against the Telangana government.
Marking the occasion of crediting of Rs 50,000 crore into the accounts of farmers, from the time of introducing the Rythu Bandhu until Monday, the TRS leadership called for week-long celebrations in the state from January 3 to 10. Subsequently, it was extended until January 15.
The celebratory mood reflected on Monday on social media too. Twitter saw a flood of tweets with the hashtag #RythuBandhuKCR. This hashtag was used by people across the sections including public representatives, farmers, and other Telangana NRIs across the globe. This hashtag stood at number one position on Twitter trends in India.
Pictures of farmers celebrating at Rythu Vedikas, Sankranthi Muggulu and much more were shared on Twitter.
Agriculture minister Niranjan Reddy stated that Telangana was the only state in the country that spends Rs 60,000 crore on agriculture and allied fields. An amount of Rs 50,600 crore was credited into the accounts of farmers under Rythu Bandhu so far.
"The Centre has backtracked on its three farm laws, against which the entire farming community outraged, due to Assembly elections in five states. There was no guarantee that the BJP government at the Centre would again bring back those farm laws," he said.
The Modi government diluted the Essential Commodities Act allowing corporate companies to stock pulses, oilseeds and other food grains. Rythu Bandhu was not implemented in Modi’s own state Gujarat. But Chandrashekar Rao introduced it without anyone’s demand,” he added.
