The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee has ridiculed the conferring of Agriculture Leadership Award-2017 on to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao by the Indian Council for Food and Agriculture (ICFA).
Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, TPCC chief spokesperson Dasoju Sravan said that the award and the agency giving it was questionable.
He also alleged that the ICFA misused the name of famous agronomist M.S. Swaminathan to provide cheap publicity to Mr. Rao.
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Mr. Sravan said that the Chief Minister does not deserve any award for his services to agriculture sector. “Over 3,500 farmers committed suicide during TRS regime and not a single family got the compensation of ₹6 lakh under GO 421. Lakhs of farmers lost three consecutive crops due to the negligence of the State Government and adverse weather conditions,” the Congress spokesperson noted.
In last crop season, farmers could not get proper remuneration for their produce and when some chilli farmers of Khammam protested, they were implicated in false cases, chained and hand-cuffed. Farmers were brutally lathicharged when they protested against erratic power supply. Thousands of farmers, including those in Chief Minister's constituency, Gajwel, are still protesting against the forcible acquisition of their land, he pointed out.
Further, the Congress leader said that TRS government did not implement the crop loan waiver scheme in a proper way. It kept the farmers hooked to their debts for over three years by splitting the loan amount in four instalments. “Deliberate delays in releasing the instalment pushed farmers into more debts due to accumulation of interest,” he said.
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