Congress has exposed its anti-farmer agenda: Harish Rao

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Harish Rao said TPCC president A Revanth Reddy had already hinted at restricting supply of power to the agriculture services to only three hours a day.

Hyderabad: The Congress has exposed its anti-farmer agenda by approaching the Election Commission of India to stop the payment of the 12th installment of Rythu Bandhu financial assistance along with benefits due to them under State-sponsored schemes and this would prove costly for the party, Finance Minister T Harish Rao said.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Harish Rao said TPCC president A Revanth Reddy had already hinted at restricting supply of power to the agriculture services to only three hours a day. He was out to deprive the farmers of the crop investment assistance for the Yasangi season due to them as part of the Rythu Bandhu scheme.

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The Congress representation to the ECI on this count was uncalled for as it was not a new scheme. Over Rs.75,000 crore was disbursed as the Rythu Bandhu assistance in 11 installments so far. Timely remittance of the Yasangi installment would have helped them in a big way. But because of the anti-farmer stance taken by the Congress leadership, they were being deprived of the assistance. Coming down heavily on former PCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy for calling Rythu Bandhu a wasteful expenditure, he recalled that Congress governments in the undivided State had left farmers in a state of indebtedness and thereby it had become instrumental for the highest rate of farmers’ suicides in Telangana. He sounded a warning to voters that given a chance, the Congress would deprive farmers of all its benefits including free power.

The Congress party which returned to power in Karnataka triggered unrest forcing farmers to take to roads demanding uninterrupted power supply that was restricted to less than five hours a day. Farmers in Karnataka were staging demonstrations and even releasing crocodiles in power substations. He sounded a caution to the farmers in Telangana that the dark days would be back if the Congress was given the chance it was begging for.