KTR flays Centre’s conspiracy to privatise agriculture, power sectors

Speaking to reporters in Sircilla on Thursday, KT Rama Rao said the union government had decided to privatise even the process of crop procurement and the entry of private companies would hugely dent the income of farmers.

Rajanna-Sircilla: IT Minister KT Rama Rao on Thursday lambasted the BJP-led union government for trying to privatise both the agriculture and power sectors, which he said would have a severely debilitating and far-reaching impact on farmers in the country.

”The Centre is conspiring to hand over both the agriculture and power sectors to corporate companies. Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had warned about such a move on numerous occasions earlier, and his words are being proved true now,'” the Minister said.

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Speaking to reporters in Sircilla on Thursday, Rama Rao said the union government, which was bent upon selling off all public sector undertakings, had decided to privatise even the process of crop procurement. The entry of private companies would hugely dent the income of farmers.

As per the Food Security Act, it was the responsibility of the union government to purchase each and every grain produced by farmers. However, the Centre was escaping from its responsibility and was now determined to privatise the power sector as well, he said, pointing out the firm stand of the Chief Minister against such reforms in the agriculture and power sectors, and recalled the State government’s resolution in the Assembly against the Power Bill.

Stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had brought anti-farmer laws without knowing the ground reality, triggering the death of 700 farmers, the Minister said the union government was trying to weaken the agriculture and power sectors with its ‘inefficient and blunt’ decisions.

Due to the inefficiency of the Centre under the Modi regime, India was already ranked worse than Nigeria in terms of poverty ratio. India was also behind even Bangladesh and Pakistan in the Hunger Index, he said.

Stating that the agriculture sector was heading into a crisis due to the Centre’s policies, Rama Rao said farmers were going to become labourers in their own lands. In order to hand over the power sector to his corporate friends, Modi had decided to privatise power utilities in the name of reforms without consulting the public or even the Parliament.

“In order to weaken power generation units and help the coal business being done by his corporate friends, the Prime Minister is forcing the States to purchase coal from Australia by spending Rs.35,000 per tonne instead of domestic coal from Singareni Collieries Company Limited which is available at Rs.3,000 per tonne. He also lobbied for his friend in countries like Sri Lanka,” he said.

Rama Rao said the electricity reforms would have a severe adverse impact on Telangana. Besides the free power to the agriculture sector, the subsidy being provided to SC, ST, washermen, weavers and Nayi Brahmana (salons) communities and a few industries would have to be revoked if the new Electricity Bill was approved in the Parliament. He stated that the union government was also conspiring to weaken Telangana’s power units by creating hurdles in the sanction of loans to them.

“Why else is the Centre issuing gazettes through the backdoor and trying to privatise State power generation units,” he asked.

Cautioning that people would have to pay money in advance if pre-paid meters were fixed under the new Electricity Bill, he said the prices of electricity would be revised regularly akin to those of fuel, if private companies took over the power sector.

Asking the people to understand the conspiracy of the Centre, the Minister wanted all political parties to register their protest by setting aside differences for the interest of the State.