HYDERABAD: Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy called upon people of the state, particularly farmers, to thrash Opposition leaders criticising Rythu Bandhu with footwear. “Congress leaders should be chased away from villages. All the political parties and politicos who are disapproving of Rythu Bandhu should be beaten with chappals. I call upon people to drive away the Congress leaders from villages as they have become obstacles for the state’s development,” the minister said.
Accompanied by TRS Rajya Sabha member Badugula Lingaiah Yadav, Jagadish Reddy distributed Rythu Bandhu cheques to eligible farmers at Pinnayipalem village in Suryapet district on Saturday. Later, while addressing the local people, the minister fired salvos at the Opposition parties, particularly the Congress leaders, for finding fault with the Rythu Bandhu scheme.Alleging that Congress leaders had claimed that farmers were consuming liquor with the money provided under the Rythu Bandhu, the energy minister appealed to people to thrash such leaders who were insulting farmers.
“No Congress leader including S Jaipal Reddy, TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy and leader of opposition K Jana Reddy had provided basic amenities to people in the constituencies represented by them, when the Congress was in power. For instance, Jana Reddy failed to provide drinking water to the people of his own constituency. But, all these leaders are now working with a single point agenda of opposing a very good scheme introduced by the state government,” Reddy said.
The minister said even some BJP leaders were also joining the Congress in criticising the Rythu Bandhu scheme. Hence the minister asked the people to teach a befitting lesson to such leaders when they visit villages.
“All these Congress leaders like Jaipal Reddy, Jana Reddy and Uttam remained mute spectators when Andhra rulers had destroyed the agriculture in Telangana by not providing irrigation facilities to the region. Now, these leaders stand in the way of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s efforts to improve the living standards of farmers in the state as they fear that if all the welfare schemes are implemented successfully, it would pose a threat to the Congress’ existence,” he commented. He made it clear that the very idea behind providing `4,000 per acre for each farmer every year is to make farmers not to depend on money lenders during crop season.