HYDERABAD: Union Agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh criticised the Telangana government, saying that the government had been neglecting farmers welfare in the state “despite the Centre taking various steps to improve the financial status of farmers”.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to the welfare of farmers. The NDA government has introduced several new schemes to protect the interests of farmers. But, it is the states, which have to implement the agriculture schemes brought out by the Centre. In case of Telangana, we have released funds under various schemes for farmers, but state government has not utilised them properly and is perpetuating distress among farmers,” said Radha Mohan Singh, while speaking here on Friday. He further claimed that while UPA had sanctioned just about Rs150 crore to united AP, during its last five years, NDA sanctioned more than Rs850 crore to Telangana under National Disaster Response Fund. This itself indicates that the BJP is committed for the welfare of Telangana farmers.
“But, Telangana government has to come forward and properly implement the initiatives introduced by Centre for the welfare of farmers,” he said.
Saying that implementation of various schemes meant for farmers are going at a slow place in Telangana, Radha Mohan Singh urged the State government to expedite the works.
“Centre has kept a target of issuing soil health card to every farmer by April 2017. It has even allotted funds for States for the same purpose. We have allotted Rs 90 crore for Telangana alone to issue soil health cards to farmers. But, till now no work has been done in this case,” the Union Minister attacked.
He, then, suggested the TRS government to come forward and take steps to distribute soil health cards to farmers, at least now. “There is no constraint for funds. TRS should first spend the funds allotted by Centre and get more funds,” he said.