Stating that the four-and-a-half-year rule of the TRS proved disastrous for farmers, president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) N. Uttam Kumar Reddy promised that the Congress would turn around the lives of farmers with a proper minimum support price (MSP) for their produce.
Farmers needed good MSP and not alms, he said, while addressing the Rythu Garjana meeting organised by NGO Rythu Rajyam at Kodad on Sunday. The State and Centre had failed to extend MSP for farmers’ produce and the crop insurance was a failure with no farmer getting any compensation for the damage they suffered due to natural calamities like drought or unseasonal rains.
The situation turned so bad that more than 4,500 farmers had committed suicide since the formation of Telangana State, he said. and added that the TRS government had failed to provide required relief to farmers through MSP who incurred losses in every season due to rising prices inputs. Mr. Reddy said the crop loan waiver scheme implemented by the TRS govt. was a failure and had not provided any succour.
Dismissing the contention of KCR that ₹2-lakh crop loan waiver promised by the Congress was not practical, he said it would be introduced in a single take. The budget of the next Telangana government would be ₹2 lakh crore and waiver of crop loans up to ₹2 lakh would not be a problem.