Telangana Congress chief Revanth Reddy has said that former Congress president, Rahul Gandhi will personally participate in the party agitations on farmers’ issues in Telangana including the present paddy procurement crisis.
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday, he said Mr. Gandhi was closely following the crisis in Telangana and how the state had got into a debt trap. He will be a key player in the agitation to be taken up in Telangana in support of the farmers.
Mr. Reddy also asked the Municipal Minister, K.T. Rama Rao, to brush up on his knowledge on the contribution of Congress to the country and the state including the formation of the new state before tweeting.
He was responding to a tweet of Mr. Rao, right after the return of his official tour to the USA, on Mr. Gandhi’s tweet blaming the TRS and the Central government for the paddy procurement crisis.
Mr. Rao had tweeted saying Mr. Gandhi was clearly misinformed and misguided on ground realities. He asked the Congress party to apologise to the farmers for neglecting them for decades and direct the criticism at those in power in Delhi who refuse to buy rice from Telangana, he advised Mr. Gandhi.
The TRS government on the other hand had provided 24 hrs of free power supply and ushered in an agricultural revolution. “What your party couldn’t deliver in 50 years, our Govt has delivered in 7 years. To compare the performance of TRS Govt with past INC Govts will put your party to shame,” he said in the tweet.
Reacting to the tweets, Mr. Revanth Reddy said Congress’s contributions to the welfare of farmers and the agriculture sector were endless and reeled out the achievements like Green revolution, Agriculture ceiling Act, Assignment lands to landless poor, Minimum Support Price mechanism, Essential Commodities Act, Public Distribution System, Farm loan waiver of over ₹70,000 crores, MGNREGA, Comprehensive Crop Insurance and Food Security.
He also said Congress fulfilled 60 years dream of four crore people for Telangana State formation. It was the Congress party led by late Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy, we gave free power to farmers and also took up Jalayagnam, introduced Aarogyasri while Sonia Gandhi brought RTE and RTI Act to hold the governments accountable to the people.
Mr. Revanth Reddy claimed the TRS policies had led to the death of over 74,000 farmers in the last seven years and these figures were from the proudly claimed Rythy Bheema scheme of the government. He also offered to take a delegation of the state government and the media to Chhattisgarh where the Congress government was procuring the farmers’ produce with a special bonus of ₹10,000 per acre on all the crops. Similarly, paddy was being procured paying ₹2,500 per quintal.
