Congress leader and chairman of TPCC Kisan Cell M. Kodanda Reddy got back at BJP State president G. Kishan Reddy and TRS MP K. Kavitha, saying both the ruling parties respectively at the State and Centre were apprehensive of Rahul Gandhi’s tour in Telangana, due to their farmer-unfriendly policies.
He challenged both the leaders to an open discussion on the aid offered by successive governments to farmers. He was responding to the open letter to Mr. Rahul Gandhi by Mr. Kishan Reddy and Ms. Kavitha’s comments at Delhi against the Congress government. Congress government under Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy had constituted one-man commission soon after it came to power in Andhra Pradesh in 2004, to enquire into farmers’ suicides, and even tabled the action-taken report in the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Reddy pointed out, at a press conference here on Saturday.
He also referred to the loan waiver scheme implemented by the UPA government, and the free power scheme in the State. On the contrary, the relief measures announced by the present BJP government to the Telangana farmers who incurred losses due to untimely rains and hailstorm were insufficient, and not comparable to that given by the UPA government, he said.
“The Centre announced just Rs. 6,800 per hectare for food grains if the crop damage was more than a third. This is far less than the amount given during the Congress rule, at Rs. 10,000 per hectare,” he said. He also cited the amendments sought to be made to the Land Acquisition Act as example of BJP government’s anti-farmer policies.
Says both the parties are apprehensive of Rahul Gandhi’s tour in Telangana due to their farmer-unfriendly policies
