Siddipet farmers send postcards to CM Revanth Reddy seeking promised bonus for paddy

The farmers, in their letters have also demanded the government to announce Rs.25,000 as compensation for each acre of crop that suffered damages due to unseasonal rains or went dry due to water shortage.

Siddipet: Left with no option but to protest against the continuing cold-shouldering of their issues by the State government, farmers are looking at multiple ways to raise their voice. After burning crop that had withered due to lack of irrigation water and later protesting on national highways, farmers have now resorted to a postcard campaign hoping that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy might at least read and come to know of their misery.

Farmers in Siddipet launched the postcard campaign on Monday by sending postcards to the Chief Minister’s Jubilee Hills residence, demanding that he ensure implementation of the promises made to farmers during the Assembly election campaign.

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One of the paddy farmers, K Srinivas Reddy of Lingareddipally, writing a letter at the Cotton marketyard in Siddipet, urged the Chief Minister to extend the promised bonus of Rs.500 per quintal of paddy apart from immediately disbursing the financial assistance of Rs.15,000 under Rythu Bharosa. He also asked for implementation of the Chief Minister’s own promise to waive loans up to Rs.2 lakh and also to ensure financial assistance under Rythu Bima to the kin of farmers who had died.

The farmers, in their letters also demanded the government to announce Rs.25,000 as compensation for each acre of crop that suffered damages due to unseasonal rains or went dry due to water shortage. They also demanded that the government implement all the schemes at one go for the benefit of the farming community. Farmers from Raghapur, Chinnakodur and other places also wrote similar letters to the Chief Minister.

Supporting the postcard campaign launched by the farmers in Siddipet, BRS leader Macha Venugopal Reddy and other leaders reached the marketyard in Siddipet and declared solidarity with the farmers. Paddy farmers were not getting even the minimum support price for their produce as traders and rice millers were purchasing the produce at Rs.1,700 to Rs.1,800 per quintal citing various reasons. Due to lack of irrigation water and untimely rains during the March, farmers got a poor yield this Yasangi season compared to the previous years, Venugopal Reddy said, adding that it was the responsibility of the government to support the farmers by giving the promised bonus of Rs.500 bonus from ensuring that they were paid the MSP of Rs.2,203.

The BRS would fight for the cause of farmers if the Congress government continued to ignore their demands, he said.