Telangana not to send crop loss report to Centre as mark of protest: CM KCR

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao said the decision to not to seek assistance from the Centre was taken as the Modi government was known for its anti-farmer policies

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has decided that the report on crop loss due to recent unseasonal rains will not be sent to the Centre as a mark of protest for the latter’s failure in releasing crop loss assistance to Telangana in the past. Instead, the State government will provide the relief and rehabilitation assistance from its treasury.

“We don’t want to depend on the Centre as it takes at least six months for it to respond. The Centre has never responded positively in earlier instances when farmers suffered due to the vagaries of nature,” the Chief Minister told the media during his whirlwind visit to the affected farm fields in the State on Thursday.

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He said the decision to not to seek assistance from the Centre was taken as the Modi government was known for its anti-farmer policies and the State’s appeals had fallen on deaf ears in the past. “The Centre appears to be interested only in politics, but not in people and policies,” he said.

Chandrashekhar Rao termed the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) as a useless scheme beneficial only for insurance companies, but not farmers. He reiterated the need for a new integrated agricultural policy for India, which was a major demand of the BRS. While previous governments at the Centre had poor insurance schemes, the situation under the current BJP regime was worse.

The Chief Minister also came down heavily on the Centre over the recommended amount for crop loss compensation. While the crop loss compensation for maize was Rs 3,333 per acre, that for paddy was Rs 5,400 per acre and for mango was Rs 7,200 per acre, he said, pointing out that the amount would not be of much help for farmers who lost their entire crop.

Referring to remarks of some economists that agriculture was of no use for economic development, Chandrashekhar Rao said Telangana had proved them wrong. The State had surpassed Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu in terms of per capita income which was Rs 3.05 lakh. “Telangana achieved a higher GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) due to a large scale contribution of its agriculture and allies sectors,” he said.

Telangana was cultivating paddy in around 56 lakh acres during the ensuing Yasangi (Rabi) season which was more than the entire paddy cultivated in about 50 lakh acres across the country, he added.