State government does a flip-flop over farm laws

‘Nothing wrong in seeing how new laws help ryots for a couple of seasons’

January 03, 2021 11:44 pm | Updated January 04, 2021 09:06 am IST

Farmers, civil society activists and others protesting against the three central laws at Indira Park, Hyderabad. File

Farmers, civil society activists and others protesting against the three central laws at Indira Park, Hyderabad. File

The recent decision of State government to wind up crop procurement centres from villages on the ground that the farmers were permitted to sell their produce anywhere in the country under the new farm laws enacted by Centre has raised strong doubts whether the TRS had diluted its tough stand on the laws. It became an open secret that the party was no longer against the new laws after the decision of the government was announced by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. The impact of the u-turn was so much that the government has also called-off one of its flagship initiatives, regulated farming, just after one season of implementation.

Giving more clarity on the govt’s changing stand, Minister S. Niranjan Reddy went on to state that there’s nothing wrong in watching “how the new laws help farmers” at least for a couple of seasons. The Opposition Congress, however, did not mince words by observing that the change in TRS stand has taken place of KCR’s Delhi visit.

Anxiety over PRC report

The three-member Pay Revision Commission has finally submitted its report to the government after 31-month-long detailed exercise, but three days after the submission of the report, information about the fitment and other benefits is hardly forthcoming. This has obviously raised the anxiety levels among the employees who are deliberating on the likely recommendations made by the commission. A section of employees feel that the fitment benefit is likely to be on a par, if not more than the previous commission’s report. The previous PRC recommended close to 30% fitment, but the government had announced 43%. Given the government’s response to the previous edition, employees are confident that they would get handsome pay hike.

Assurances to employees take political hues

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has announced his determination to resolve the long pending demands of the employees like pay revision, promotions and other aspects. He has constituted a three-member committee of senior IAS officers to examine the matter and submit its recommendations in this regard. But the issue has come in handy for the opposition parties to take on the government. Some parties cited the results of the recent bypoll to Dubbak segment and GHMC polls behind the decision while some others say the CM is trying to woo employees who reportedly distanced themselves from the govt.

Slick cops pose

for a flick

Top police brass were exposed to the glare of arc lights while shooting for a documentary which is to be released shortly.

The New Year brought in the starry image to them as this production would be beamed into drawing rooms of households.

On Saturday, the busy Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar’s office turned into a virtual film studio with constant commands of lights, camera and action which are hurled at crew in shootings. A documentary on cyber crime awareness with youngsters as their target audience was being shot there with the interviews of a few police officers from three commissionerates - Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda. However, the officers were found acting a bit too unnatural as they had to redo the performance in front of cameras. For instance, an officer was seen doing three or four takes for a ‘walk-in’ shot.

(B. Chandrashekhar, M. Rajeev & Abhinay Deshpande)

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