Hyderabad, Nov.30 (NSS): Siddipet MLA Harish Rao today said it was shameful that the Congress government was hatching a conspiracy to permanently shut down the Rythu Bandhu scheme, which provided investment assistance for agriculture and assured the farmers. He said it was regrettable that the State agriculture minister was claiming that the farmers were saying ₹.500 bonus for paddy was better than rythu bandhu.
He recalled that the United Nations had also praised the Rythu Bandhu scheme as the only scheme in the world that provided investment assistance to the farmers. He said it was unfortunate that such a great scheme is being planned and attempted to be scrapped in a planned manner. He also said the Congress government had announced that it had purchased 5,19,605 quintals of fine variety of paddy at a bonus of Rs 500 per quintal against the yield of 1.53 crore metric tonnes of paddy in the State. The bonus given to the farmers on this count is only about Rs 26 crore, he said. “Under the rythu bandhu scheme, ₹. 7,500 crore will have to be deposited in the accounts of farmers annually.
If we pay Rs 15,000 per acre as stated in the Congress manifesto, it will be even more,” he said. He demanded that Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao and Revanth Reddy should answer as to how it would be better for the farmers to provide the bonus than rythu bandhu benefit. “When CM Revanth Reddy came to power, he waived off loans for half of the people and showed a stubborn hand to half of them. After that, it was a bonus for all the crops and eventually it was restricted to the preparations only,” he alleged. Rao said former CM KCR had earlier warned that the rythu bandhu scheme would be banned if the Congress party came to power. As expected, the Revanth Reddy government is taking steps in that direction, he said.
“Are the farmers, tenant farmers and labourers, who are waiting for the farmer’s assurance have been cheated?” he asked. He wondered whether Revanth Reddy was holding a farmers festival for successfully deceiving the farmers? “Revanth Reddy is the winner of the manifesto and for betraying the farmers after coming to power. The BRS party strongly condemns the conspiracy to stop the Rythu Bandhu scheme launched by KCR to change the lives of the farmers,” he said. He demanded that the State government give clarity on the implementation of the Rythu Bandhu scheme at a function to be held in Mahbubnagar on Saturday and immediately release crop investment assistance to Yasangi crops along with the pending monsoon rythu bandhu dues.
