HYDERABAD: Former minister T Harish Rao on Tuesday accused the Congress government of cheating and betraying farmers by announcing a bonus of Rs 500 per quintal of superfine variety of paddy and excluding coarse variety. He said that during the kharif season, only 20% of the paddy sown will be the superfine variety while 80% would be the coarse variety. He demanded the Cabinet to review its decision on payment of bonus.
Speaking to reporters here, Harish said that the Congress did not mention in its manifesto that it will give a bonus only for a superfine variety of paddy. “To give a bonus of Rs 500 for 20 lakh crore tonnes, the government requires Rs 6,000 crore while it will need just Rs 500 crore to give bonus for only superfine variety,” he said. Harish recalled that Congress promised MSP for chilli, turmeric, soybean, red sorghum and other crops and wanted to know when the government will fulfil this promise.
“During BRS rule, the government procured 7. 28 lakh metric tonnes of paddy in 10 years. Last year we procured 66 lakh MT. The Congress government has so far procured only 36 MT. Afraid that after a week or 10 days, there will be no procurement, farmers are selling paddy to brokers at a low price,” Harish alleged.
He demanded Rs 25,000 per acre as compensation for damaged crops.
Officials told to wrap up paddy purchase
Nizamabad and Kamareddy districts special officer, Dr A Sharath, directed Kamareddy district officials to complete paddy purchases within the next four days. He stated that officials are preparing to purchase 35,000 mts of paddy. Sharath visited several paddy purchase centres in the district. He advised district officials to appoint teams for each paddy purchase centre to ensure the timely completion of purchases