Hyderabad: TRS MLCs Karne Prabhakar, M. Srinivasa Reddy and others dema-nded that Telangana state BJP president K. Laxman tender an apology to farmers for insulting them.
BJP leaders had said that the farmers were utilising the Rs 4,000 per acre per season investment subsidy to consume liquor and the Rythu Bandhu scheme was helpful to liquor traders and not farmers. Speaking to the media on Saturday, Mr Prabhakar said that it was very unfortunate that the prestigious Rythu Bandhu scheme was being ridiculed by the Congress and the BJP. He said that the BJP was also following the Congress and asked what the Centre had done for the welfare of farmers.
Mr Prabhakar questioned whether schemes in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh and the waiver of Rs 1 lakh loan of each farmer promised by the BJP in its Karnataka election manifesto were also to help liquor traders. The opposition parties had lost the right to speak about farmers, he said.
Mr Srinivasa Reddy said Congress leaders were saying that if the farmers were provided remunerative prices, there was no need for the investment subsidy sch-eme. Remunerative pri-ces was in the purview of the Centre, he said. The TRS government was implementing far-mer’s welfare schemes to ensure that no farmer committed suicide.
