Let down by budget, farmer unions to stage protest in Telangana on February 13
HYDERABAD: The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), Telangana unit, has termed the Union Budget “anti-farmer”.
The farmer collective, which has more than 200 farmers’ bodies, announced on Monday that it would stage protests in the city and all the districts on February 13 against the budget and the government’s failure to address the issue of farmers’ debt.
At a press conference at Maqdum Bhavan at Himayatnagar, farmer activist and president of All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha (AIKMS) Vemulapalli Venkataramayya came down heavily on the Centre for reducing the share of rural economy in the budget from 9.83 per cent in 2019-20 to 9.30 per cent in this budget.
“The budget speech had a promise of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, the same as in the 2016 budget. However, even after four years, there is no official position on the current farmers’ income,” said Kiran Kumar, a national member of AIKSCC.
He said on the contrary, the Economic Survey data shows that in the last four years, the growth rate of Gross Value Added (GVA) in agriculture, which can be a proxy for farm income, has fallen from 6.3 per cent to 2.8 per cent.
“This is clearly a budget that has no space for farmers. The Centre is yet again telling us that we do not matter to the government,” said AIKSCC in a statement.