Congress Govt trying to restrict number of Rythu Bharosa beneficiaries, says Harish Rao

He lashed out at the government for asking the farmers to submit a self-declaration for getting Rythu Bharosa

Sangareddy: Former Minister T Harish Rao said the Congress government was trying to restrict the number of beneficiaries under the Rythu Bharosa scheme. Since the government was planning to extend Rythu Bharosa only to those who cultivated crops, Rao said farmers, who cultivated long-duration crops such as cotton, sugarcane and horticulture crops, would not be eligible to get Rythu Bharosa twice a year.

He lashed out at the government for asking the farmers to submit a self-declaration for getting Rythu Bharosa. Accusing the government of humiliating the farmers, Rao said it would froce the farmers to roam around government offices and Congress leaders. Speaking to news reporters in Sangareddy on Wednesday, Harish Rao said the BRS government had extended the Rythu Bandhu to all the farmers without any conditions. Out of 1.50 crore lakh acres cultivated during Vanakalam in Telangana, cotton was cultivated in 50 lakh acres. However, the cotton farmers may not get the second installment of Rythu Bharosa with the restrictions since it is a seven-month crop. Furthermore, he said that the government was also trying to restrict the beneficiaries of Rythu Bharosa to landless labourers.

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He demanded the government to extend Rythu Bharosa to landless labourers to all those who had MGNREGS cards besides extending to those who had less than one acre of land. Rao demanded an unconditional Rythu Bharosa release to all the farmers who had lands in the State. He further lashed at the government for cheating the farmers by denying loan waivers to the majority of farmers. Rao said that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy asked the farmers, who borrowed more than Rs 2 lakh loan, to repay excess amounts to banks to get eligibility for loan waiver. However, the government was not making any assurance to waive off their loan. The former minister demanded the government make an announcement setting a deadline for implementing of 100 per cent loan waiver.

Sangareddy MLA Chintha Prabhakar, Zaheerabad MLA K Manik Rao and others were present.