A. Maheshwar Reddy
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The Bhartiya Janata Party has accused the Congress government of cheating the farmers, by restricting bonus of ₹500 per quintal to farmers growing fine rice only as it will mean benefitting only 5% and leaving out the rest of the 95% in the lurch.
“The party did not mention these conditions when the promise was made to the farmers. It looks like they want to follow former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s footsteps as he too tried to force farmers to grow fine rice though it will burden them and the climate of Telangana too is not conducive for the same,” said legislative party leader A. Maheshwar Reddy on Tuesday.
Addressing a press conference, he urged Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy to review the decision taken by the State Cabinet or cautioned he would have to face the farmers’ wrath. An all-party meeting should also be called for discussing the farmers’ woes, including the inadequacies in paddy procurement process. Mr. Reddy charged that under the Civil Supplies department tutelage about 10-12% more kilos or up to 11,000 metric tonnes worth ₹1,600 crore (out of the estimated 1.30 lakh metric tonnes being procured) is being weighed without giving any receipt at the paddy procurement centres and questioned the end beneficiaries.
Civil Supplies Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy and Civil Supplies Commissioner D.S. Chauhan owe an explanation to the people about the complaints being made by the farmers on this count and why the rice millers were being allowed to get away scotfree by levying “receipt less penalties” to the tune of hundreds of crores. “Do they have proper record on how much of milled rice has been released by the rice millers and how much is pending in the last two years? Do the guidelines allow such kind of withholding milled rice? Has the department made a blacklist of the rice millers who were caught in such misdemeanours or are they being allowed to mill the rice for this season? Was the Recovery Act applied on them,” he questioned.
The BJP leader alleged that about ₹25,000 crore worth of custom milled rice from the millers has to reach the government still, even as the latter is forced to pay interest rate for the same. There was no evidence of the department keeping a check on the PDS rice being re-circulated and offered to present proof if the Minister concerned desired. Party official spokesperson N.V. Subhash also demanded that bonus be extended to all the farmers.
In a separate press conference, former MP B. Naraisah Goud has questioned the delay in clearing the fee reimbursement dues of about ₹7,000 crore and also the Aarogyasri payments for the various hospitals even while accusing the government of releasing funds to the contractors to the tune of ₹4,000 just before the Parliament polls.
“The Congress government is only fooling the public with grand announcements but not bothering about the plight of the poor students belonging to the weaker sections eligible for the fee reimbursement. Scores of lecturers’ salaries too are dependent on the funds to be released by the government,” he said.
Similarly, the grand claim of enhancing health to 10 lakh cards have no meaning unless the pending dues to the healthcare centres are not cleared as most of them are refusing to honour them. “If the government provides about ₹400 crore to ₹500 crore most of the healthcare needs can be taken care of. The applications for the CMRF – Chief Minister Relief Fund, should also be made online,” he demanded.
