The government of Telangana landed itself in an avoidable controversy a day after it issued a GO clearing the names of four ruling party MLAs and the son and personal secretary of Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy as part of a “progressive farmers” team to visit an international agriculture exhibition in Israel.
Opposition parties grabbed the opportunity and launched a scathing attacking against the government asking it whether it was difficult for the official machinery to identify even a few genuine progressive farmers to take them on the exposure visit to Tel Aviv from April 27 to 30. After attending the event, the delegation is also scheduled to visit a few orchards, greenhouses and open cultivation sites to study the use of modern techniques, till May 4.
The eight-member team cleared to visit Israel for eight days comprises two officials – one from the Agriculture University and another from the Horticulture Department – but none of the remaining members practice agriculture as their main vocation.
The four ruling party legislators are Enugu Ravinder Reddy, Gangula Kamalakar, Dasari Manohar Reddy and Kalvakuntla Vidyasagar Rao and the Agriculture Minister’s son, P.Bhaskar Reddy, who all have other business interests, though they have agriculture as an allied activity. The Minister’s personal secretary, however, does not fall in either of the categories.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Mahesh Konagala said the GO has yet again proved the TRS government’s dishonesty. He charged that the four TRS MLAs had business interests -- while one was a well-known granite exporter, two others ran professional colleges and yet another one was a former Central government employee. “They have changed the definition of progressive farmer,” he said.
BJP’s poser“Didn’t Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao find even a few genuine progressive farmers in entire Telangana, as he has selected four ruling party legislators,” official spokesperson of BJP Krishna Sagar Rao asked, criticising the government’s decision. When contacted, highly-placed official sources said the controversy was very much avoidable had the government made it clear that it would send some legislators on the exposure visit instead of progressive farmers.
Meanwhile, in an attempt at damage control the legislators concerned were understood to have been told by the powers-that-be to hold press conferences and state that they too were progressive farmers. “They were told to explain their interests in agriculture and to defend the government decision stating that there was nothing wrong in their selection for the visit,” official sources told The Hindu .
The Agriculture University distanced itself from the controversy stating that it had nothing to do with it as all the decisions were taken by the government.
