AICC spokesperson Dasoju Sravan has accused Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao of using farmers as pawns to further his national political ambitions, and said farmers have been left in the lurch with the government ignoring them and failing them at every level.
At a press conference here, he said KCR was busy offering compensation to Punjab farmers with the money from the Telangana exchequer while ignoring 8,400 farmers suicides in his own state. He said KCR had announced that he would procure all the paddy within a week during his Deeksha in NewDelhi but not even 31 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been procured till now out of the 92 lakh metric tonnes of paddy produced. Even basic necessities for paddy procurement like gunny bags, and tarpaulins are also not available at procurement centres causing severe problems to farmers.
Mr. Sravan said the Warangal Declaration introduced by Congress senior leader, Rahul Gandhi will enlighten Telangana farmers on betrayal tactics and failures of Telangana CM in addressing farmers’ issues. The declaration, which includes nine key aspects relating to safeguarding Telangana farmers’ interests, is being taken to every village and every farmer by Congress cadres all over the state.
He said KCR directed the farmers not to sow paddy and believing him farmers cultivated alternative crops like sorghum, Bengal gram, pigeon pea and other crops in lakhs of acres in Telangana. But they are suffering losses as the government is not offering any MSP or procuring the yield. For instance, 18 lakh quintals of sorghum was cultivated in 1.04 lakh acres but not a single grain has been procured.
