HYDERABAD: Marking National Farmers’ Day on Friday, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao interacted with over 1.5 lakh farmers of Rajanna Sircilla. Rama Rao spoke about Telangana government’s revolutionary welfare schemes which transformed agriculture in the State into a flourishing profession.
Reeling off figures, the minister said that food grain production increased from 68 lakh metric tonnes in 2014 to 3.5 crore metric tonnes. He said that the capacity of godowns was four lakh metric tonnes before the formation of the State and has now been increased by the BRS government to 24 lakh metric tonnes.
Rama Rao spoke about investment support through Rythu Bandhu, insurance provided through Rythu Bima, construction of Rythu Vedikas, irrigation projects such as Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme, free power provided to farmers and other pioneering initiatives of the State government.
He said that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who was moved by the financial plight of farmers, introduced the Rythu Bandhu scheme which no other political leader in the history of the country had dared to envisage. “Every year, Rs 10,000 per acre is given to farmers as agriculture investment support under the scheme. So far, Rs 57,882 crore has been credited to bank accounts of farmers in nine instalments,” Rama Rao said.
“About Rs 7,600 crore will be distributed under the 10th instalment starting this month-end. A total of 66 lakh farmers will benefit from the Rythu Bandhu scheme. The governments at the Centre and other States took inspiration from Telangana and came up with similar schemes,” he said.
The minister said that Telangana was the only State where power is supplied free of cost and round-the-clock to farmers. He said that lakhs of acres are receiving irrigation water as 27,625 tanks were restored and rejuvenated by the State government through Mission Kakatiya. “KCR should be credited for completing all projects kept pending by the government of undivided Andhra Pradesh and for introducing new irrigation projects like Kaleshwaram,” Rama Rao said.
Reaffirming the State government’s commitment to do everything possible for comprehensive welfare of farmers and robust development of the sector, the BRS working president said that farmers have always stood by the side of KCR in every election and expressed confidence that they will continue to support in the future too.