HYDERABAD: Challenging the opposition leaders to show one State other than Telangana that provides 24-hour free uninterrupted power supply in the country, TRS working president K T Rama Rao has appealed to the farmers of Munugode to teach the Centre a lesson and prevent it from enacting laws that could be detrimental to their interests.
Addressing the farmers from Munugode constituency at a meeting held at Manneguda village in Ibrahimpatnam mandal in Rangareddy district on Saturday, the IT minister warned of three ‘dangerous’ intentions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi - to fit meters to motors of agricultural borewells, privatisation of SPDCL and NPDC, to benefit his corporate friends, and to impose pre-paid power tariffs which could change every day.
“Modi has no understanding of how enlightened the farmers are. He gave all the States a bumper offer that if we fit meters to motors, he will give the States Rs5,000 crore as loans every year. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao would not sacrifice the interests of the farmers even if the Centres gives Rs 25,000 as loans,” he said.Citing the statement of Sudhanshu Pandey, Union Secretary, Food and Public Distribution, that soon procurement of food grains could be privatised, Rama Rao observed that farmers would lose the power to demand minimum support price (MSP) if that was done.
The State came a long way from pre 2014 times when people would plead with electricity officials to give power for 30 minutes so that they could take bath after the last rites, he said.“Ten years ago when there was power supply for 10 hours, people wouldn’t even question. Today, if power is disrupted for 15 minutes, people start asking whether this is Bangaru Telangana. That is the difference made.”
He describing Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao as the first leader in the independent India to think of giving financial input assistance to farmers in the form of Rythu Bandhu scheme. “Telangana has reached a stage where it produces 3.5 crore tonne of paddy as against 68 lakh tonne in 2014.
Cotton production has gone up from 35 lakh bales to 62 lakh bales. By undertaking pisciculture in 46,000 irrigation tanks and giving nets, vehicles and boats on subsidy to fishermen, we have created ` 5,000 crore marine wealth and achieved blue revolution.”
Speaking on the occasion, Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy pointed out that the highest amount of money under Rythu Bandhu was being spent in the Munugode Assembly constituency. “In the last nine phases of Rythu Bandhu, a total of Rs 1,031 crore has been credited to the accounts of 1,46,284 farmers cultivating 2,65,054 acres in Munugode, making it the constituency receiving the maximum amount of funds under the scheme. Sircilla got Rs 418 crore, Gajwel Rs 706 crore and my own Wanaparthy constituency got Rs688 crore. Still, a person (Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy) has been claiming that Munugode is not getting any funds,” Niranjan Reddy said.
GO BACK SLOGANS GREET RAJAGOPAL REDDY
Nalgonda: BJP candidate Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy has been facing slogans from Congress activists across the Munugode constituency during his election campaign for the past three days. There have been several instances of angry Congress workers raising “Go Back” slogans against Rajagopal Reddy for joining BJP. They said they elected him as Munugode MLA in the hope that he would continue to be loyal to the Congress.
KA Paul, now an Independent candidate
KA Paul, founder of the Praja Shanti Party, landed in an embarrassing position on Saturday when the Returning Officer rejected his candidature for the Munugode bypoll. However, luck favoured Paul as he had also filed a nomination as an Independent candidate. The PSP is not in the list of recognised parties as it failed to fulfil the EC’s rules of filing its financial audit reports.