HYDERABAD: Terming the claims being made by Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) government on agriculture growth as bogus, TPCC president and MP A. Revanth Reddy accepted the challenge posed by minister K.T. Rama Rao for a debate on the issue.
He was addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Tuesday along with TPCC political affairs committee convener Mohammed Ali Shabbir and others.
The TPCC president said he was ready for an open debate on what the Congress government did from 2004-2014 and how the TRS government brought about an agrarian crisis from 2014 to 2021 besides debating on how the Congress-ruled states were doing better than the TRS government for farmers' welfare.
He said that the concept of free power for the agriculture sector was introduced by the Congress. "The then energy minister Shabbir Ali was instrumental in implementing 7-hour quality power for free for the agriculture sectors in the entire undivided Andhra Pradesh. Later, the duration of free power supply was increased to nine hours," he said.
Revanth Reddy said the Congress government in Chhattisgarh headed by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was doing much better for the agriculture sector compared to Telangana or other States. He offered to take a delegation of Telangana ministers for a comparative study.
“Rama Rao claimed that the TRS government had spent Rs 2.71 lakh crore on the agriculture sector in the last seven years which include Rs 1.16 lakh crore on irrigation projects, Rs 50,000 crore towards Rythu Bandhu and Rs 3,535 crore to insurance companies. If this is true, then why is the TRS government not procuring agricultural produce?” he asked. He said the entire agriculture infrastructure would be of no use if farmers were unable to sell their produce and make profits.
Revanth Reddy said the TRS government opened belt shops across the state and collected over Rs 1.45 lakh crore by selling liquor. He said common people, especially poor and middle-class, were made to habituate to liquor consumption. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had become an ambassador for drunkards, he alleged.
Referring to a claim made by Chandrashekar Rao in the past that he earned Rs 1 crore per acre, he asked him to transform his farmhouse into a tourist destination and create awareness among farmers on which crops they should cultivate.
"KT Rama Rao has proved to be an inefficient minister. Performances of all his departments like municipal administration, information technology, panchayat raj and others are the worst. He knows nothing about what the previous Congress government did for the agriculture sector in Telangana,” Revanth said.
The TPCC chief said he was ready for an open debate on all these issues at any time and place suggested by the minister. He said the debate could be held at the Rythu Vedikas, Pragathi Bhavan or the Telangana Martyrs' Memorial. He said the Congress leaders would come for the debate if any media house organised it. However, he advised Rama Rao not to run away from the debate as he did in the past on the issue of drugs.
