Congress MLC T. Jeevan Reddy and former PCC chief Ponnala Lakshmaiah urged Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to provide compensation of ₹10,000 per acre to farmers who did not cultivate paddy after the government’s appeal and also to those who have already sold their produce to millers due to the confusion over procurement.
In a letter to the Chief Minister, Mr. Jeevan Reddy said farmers in about 15 lakh acres stayed away from paddy and they need to be compensated as they lost ₹20,000 per acre due to the confused policy of the government on paddy cultivation. He said it would only cost ₹1,500 crore to the State Government if those farmers were compensated.
At a press conference in New Delhi, Mr. Ponnala Lakshmaiah said 30% of the farmers have already sold paddy to the millers due to the confusion created by the Chief Minister over the last one month forcing distress sale. He said farmers were forced to sell to the rice millers as the government showed no intention of buying paddy putting the onus on the central government. What made the CM believe that the Centre will procure parboiled rice when the CM himself had given an assurance that it would not be provided. You have used farmers for politics and now trying to buy when 30% of produce is already sold,” he asked.
Mr. Ponnala said the government would have to spend just Rs 1200 crores for procuring the parboiled rice and this was not much in the Rs. 2.50 lakh crore state budget. Moreover, the government was paying Rs. 4,000 crores to landlords under Rythu Bandhu despite no agricultural activity in those lands. “Why is he unable to spend Rs. 1200 crores on genuine farmers,” he asked.
Revanth warns CM
TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy said that the government’s decision to procure paddy was due to the constant pressure from the Congress on behalf of farmers.
In a tweet, he said that the Chief Minister cannot be trusted given the constant change in his approach to the issue of paddy procurement. So the party would be cautious and will continue to put pressure and ensure that the last grain from the farmer was procured paying the MSP.
