‘Telangana Govt will extend complete support to rain-affected farmers’

Palla Rajeshwar Reddy urged the Centre to send its teams at the earliest and extend assistance, putting aside its dislike towards the Telangana government

Hyderabad: Rythu Bandhu Samithi Chairman and MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy said the State government will extend complete support to farmers who lost their crops due to the recent unseasonal rains. He stated that the officials and the elected representatives were already visiting the villages to assess the crop damage due to unseasonal rains, hailstorm and gale. However, he urged the Centre to send its teams at the earliest and extend assistance, putting aside its dislike towards the Telangana government.

Addressing a press conference at BRS Legislative Party office here on Monday, Rajeshwar Reddy said the preliminary reports have pegged loss of crop on an extent of about 1.5 lakh acres belonging to 80,000 farmers. The final report on the damage assessment is expected to be completed within next two-three days. “Mango and papaya orchards, maize, chilli, paddy and vegetable crops had borne the maximum brunt. Commercial crops like onion, tobacco, red chilli, flowers and others crops also were affected either in the fields or at drying platforms,” he said.

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The Rythu Bandhu Samithi chairman said the Yasangi crops were being cultivated in more than 72 lakh acres along with horticultural crops in another 15 lakh acres. However, the unseasonal rains have dashed the hopes of farmers in all 32 districts. He assured that the officials were preparing cluster-wise estimation of crop loss and notwithstanding the Centre’s assistance, the State government will provide all support needed to farmers as was done following crop loss in Narsampet and Parkal areas last year.

Rajeshwar Reddy rubbished the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) as a meaningless scheme meant to benefit insurance companies rather than farmers. He stated that as against Rs 880 crore premium paid by farmers in 2019 in Telangana, only Rs 488 crore was given as compensation despite higher quantity of crop damage. “Several States like Telangana, West Bengal and even Gujarat have opted out of the scheme, due to these reasons. The Centre should heed to our request and come up with a new policy that would be helpful to farmers and not insurance companies,” he added.

MLAs Gandra Venkataramana Reddy, KP Vivekanand Goud and Sandra Venkata Veeraiah also spoke.