Senior Telugu Desam Party leader Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy has maintained that the Jagan Mohan Reddy Government had no right to claim credit for the State receiving the lion’s share of about ₹1,000 crore provided to farmers under the PM Kisan scheme.
Taking strong objection to the ‘‘publicity blitz’‘ campaign launched by the YSRCP Government on farmers’ welfare, the TDP Polit Bureau member on Tuesday contended that the State Government’s contribution to Rythu Bharosa was only about ₹90 crore. In fact, the present government had slashed the assistance to each farmer from ₹15,000 the TDP promised to ₹13,500 now, he added.
Farmers in the State were saddled with an average debt of ₹2.45 lakh each as against the average outstanding of farmers to the tune of ₹74,500 across the nation, observed the former Agriculture Minister.
It was misleading to make an assertion that ₹1,45,751 crore had been spent on farmers’ welfare by the government, which had allegedly unspent over 35% of the budgetary allocation for agriculture each year, he said.
He said ₹63,000 crore earmarked for paddy purchase by the government could not construe as a direct benefit as the government had got back the amount in the form of sale proceeds from the Food Corporation of India. The market intervention scheme had not covered most of the paddy produced by farmers. As a result, the ryots were forced to sell their produce to millers at a price much below the minimum support price, he explained.
The present YSRCP Government had cut subsidies to micro-irrigation and farm mechanisation, he charged, adding while the previous TDP Government had spent ₹2,000 crore for extending subsidy to farmers for the purchase of tractors and farm implements, the allocation was slashed to a mere ₹690 crore.
The State would have to grapple with a whooping debt of over ₹10 lakh crore in the future following the extravagant spending of the present YSRCP Government, he added.
