NDA is anti-farmer, we will waive loans: Uttam Kumar Reddy

Hyderabad: TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Wednesday blamed the wrong policies of NDA government for the ongoing agrarian crisis across the country, including in TS.

Addressing a press conference in the Gandhi Bhavan, Mr Reddy condemned the death of six farmers in police firing in Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh and said the victims were demanding higher prices for their crops to recover input costs.

“Instead of listening to the farmers’ demands, the BJP government in MP used force to suppress the agitation,” Mr Reddy said, adding that the Central and Madhya Pradesh governments have become too arrogant to listen to poor farmers. They simply followed shoot-to-kill policy to silence the farmers' agitation,” he said.

Mr Reddy said that TRS government in the state was a perfect ally of BJP in terms of pursuing anti-farmer policies.

“While Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s government in Telangana handcuffed and chained chilli farmers of Khammam for demanding remunerative prices, his MP counterpart Shivraj Singh Chouhan went a step ahead and permitted police firing on farmers which claimed six lives,” he said.

Mr Reddy promised that the Congress would not only waive crop loans up to Rs 2 lakh, it would also provide bonus on all crops to farmers in addition to the MSP provided by the Centre after coming to power in 2019.

Stating that the agriculture sector was in a total state of neglect, especially in Telangana, Mr Reddy said that thousands of farmers lost their crops due to spurious seeds and fertilisers.

“Neither any affected farmer was paid any compensation nor action was taken against the guilty firms,” Mr Reddy said. Referring to the Fasal Bima Yojna, introduced by Central government, he said that