Congress playing double game on Rythu Bandhu, says Harish Rao

Finance Minister T Harish Rao criticized the Congress party, accusing them of an 'anti-farmer' stance following their complaint to the Election Commission of India.

Hyderabad: Slamming the Congress party for its ‘anti-farmer’ complaint to the Election Commission of India which led to withdrawal of permission for Rythu Bandhu fund disbursals, Finance Minister T Harish Rao said the Congress was playing a double game by trying to put the blame of the ECI’s decision on the BRS to mislead the people of the State.

Addressing a press conference along with BRS secretary general K Keshava Rao here on Monday, Harish Rao said the Rythu Bandhu disbursal was stopped after TPCC vice-president G Niranjan lodged a complaint with the ECI and that the BRS had nothing to do with it. “Congress is playing a double game. It lodged a complaint against Rythu Bandhu disbursement and when EC permitted the State government to release the installment, it again lodged a complaint. And now it is blaming the BRS for cancellation of the release of the amount,” he said.

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Harish Rao said Telangana Congress in-charge Manikrao Thakare had lodged a complaint against the Telangana government’s decision to release Rythu Bandhu installments with the ECI on October 23. This was confirmed by TPCC president A Revanth Reddy and MP Uttam Kumar Reddy during a press conference in Delhi. “When the EC allowed the disbursal of Rythu Bandhu, Niranjan lodged yet another complaint, following which it was withdrawn,” he said.

Describing Congress as an anti-farmer party, Harish Rao said the Congress was always working against the interest of the farmers. “Whether they are in power or in opposition, they have deceived the farmers. In the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh too, the Congress government ignored the welfare of the farmers and now after formation of Telangana too, they are trying to harm the farmers,”he said.

Pointing out how the Congress was not supplying adequate power to farmers in Karnataka, Harish Rao said Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah himself had admitted that during polls, parties make a lot of promises but all of them cannot be implemented. “This is the status of the Congress party. If Congress comes to power in Telangana, the same thing will happen to all the six guarantees promised by it,” he said.

Both the BJP and Congress had failed to implement the recommendations of Swaminathan Committee, but were trying to stall the efforts of K Chandrashekhar Rao in Telangana to take up welfare programmes for the farmers. Stating that both the Congress and the BJP were in favour of installing meters to agriculture pump sets, he said the Congress governments in Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan installed the meters while the Karnataka government had passed a Bill in the assembly to do the same.

“Telangana is the only State opposing fixing of meters to agriculture pump sets, with the Chief Minister stating in the Assembly that he will not allow the meters till he is alive,” he added.