Regional parties in forefront of development of states: Vinod Kumar
In a short speech delivered over phone from New Delhi during a national workshop on ‘Agriculture as focus area of regional approaches for national development agenda,’
Hyderabad: Telangana Planning Board Vice-Chairman B Vinod Kumar on Thursday said the States, which were ruled by the regional parties, were in the forefront in the development of their States.
In a short speech delivered over phone from New Delhi during a national workshop on ‘Agriculture as focus area of regional approaches for national development agenda,’ organized by Consortium of Indian Farmers Association (CIFA), he said most States in south India were ruled by the regional parties ensuring the overall development.
Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were ruled by the regional parties, he said. Stating that the role of regional parties became more crucial, Vinod Kumar said India was a union of States and added that it was the responsibility of the Central government to protect the interest of farmers, who are facing several problems.
He advised CIFA to organize more workshops to discuss farmers’ problems in detail and bring them to the notice of the government.
Eminent speakers, who took part in the workshop, underscored the need for up-gradation of technology and knowledge among the agriculture officers. The speakers also appreciated the efforts of the TRS government in supplying uninterrupted quality power supply to the agriculture sector apart from providing water to meet the requirement of irrigation sector, Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bima schemes to farmers.
Shyam Sunder Reddy of Agriculture Officers Association said that more research must be conducted before introducing any technology in the agriculture sector. Explaining the reasons behind most farmers preferring to cultivate paddy, he said paddy cultivation would require less manpower and moreover farmers were using the latest equipment in carrying out paddy cultivation in an effective manner.
Reddy said more focus should be laid on addressing local problems of farmers. CIFA Chief Advisor P Chengal Reddy said the lopsided policies adopted by the Central government led to inability of farmers to become globally competitive.
‘Release Rs 900 pending grants’
Telangana State Planning Board Vice-Chairman B Vinod Kumar requested NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar to recommend the release of pending grants of Rs 900 crore and extension of special assistance for five years beyond 2021-22.
In a letter to Rajiv Kumar, he said NITI Aayog recommended a special development package for Telangana amounting to Rs 24,205 crore under section 94(2) of AP Re-organization Act- 2014. This section mandates the Centre to support programmes for the development of backward areas in the State, including expansion of physical and social infrastructure.
Based on the recommendation of NITI Aayog, the Ministry of Finance sanctioned Rs 450 crore per annum. The amount sanctioned by the Ministry falls far short of the amount recommended by NTTI Aayog, he pointed out. The State government was yet to receive the grants for 2019-20 and the current year amounting to Rs 900 crore.
Except for Hyderabad, all the erstwhile nine districts of the State were covered under the Backward Regions Grant Fund. After the formation of the State, there was re-organisation of districts taking the total number of districts from 10 to 33. With this, the number of backward districts has increased from nine to 32. This has increased the commitments of the State for developing the infrastructure in the newly-created districts for promoting growth, Vinod said, in a representation submitted to Rajiv Kumar.
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