Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has appealed to farmers and party workers to participate in the proposed ‘Chalo Assembly’ rally on Friday, the first day of the forthcoming session of the legislature.
The protest rally would be taken out in a democratic and peaceful manner and it was organised as part of efforts to expose the “indifferent attitude” of the Government towards farmers. The appeal by Legislative Affairs Minister T. Harish Rao to withdraw the proposed protest notwithstanding, Mr. Uttam Kumar Reddy justified the rally and warned the State Government and ruling party against creating obstacles to the protest.
Promises not kept
He alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao never honoured the promises he made to the farm sector on several occasions. As a result, the condition of the farmers worsened resulting in spree of suicides by farmers since the TRS formed the government.
These suicides were “institutional murders” as could be seen from the manner in which the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues did not even make a mention of them in their statements. The government failed to pay compensation to the families of the deceased and the ruling party was bent on blaming the previous Congress government for it the present suicides instead of being apologetic.
Loss enumeration
No compensation was paid to farmers who suffered huge crop losses due to natural calamities plunging them into crisis. The state of affairs could be seen from the fact that the government was yet to take up enumeration of losses incurred by farmers due to recent heavy rains. “The ruling party is making hollow claims on purchase of damaged crops while the picture on the ground is totally different,” he said.
Mr. Reddy alleged that the crop loan waiver scheme implemented by the government was full of lapses and majority of farmers were denied of the benefits. The Chief Minister who assured the Legislature more than once that the situation would be remedied failed to initiate any action to address the mounting burden of the accumulated interest. “The fourth instalment of the promised loan waiver is yet to be deposited in the accounts of thousands of farmers, despite repeated assurances to the Legislature,” he lamented.
