BRS Accuses Congress Government of Cheating Farmers Over Paddy Bonus

Hyderabad: The BRS on Tuesday accused the Congress state government of “daylight cheating of farmers” its declaration that the ₹ 500 bonus per quintal will be restricted to fine variety of paddy.

“Declaring that only fine paddy will get bonus is nothing more than blatant cheating of farmers by the Congress government which is fully aware that more than 90 per cent of paddy grown during the just concluded Yasangi (Rabi) season is of the coarse variety. The Cabinet decision clearly demonstrates the cheating of farmers by the state government,” senior BRS leader T. Harish Rao claimed.

At a press conference, he said Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka had claimed that ‘other paddy varieties will also get bonus in the future’. “When will this future be? Our demand is that the government implement its bonus for paddy for all varieties immediately. We also demand that bonus for other crops such as jowar, turmeric, soya and others that the Congress promised in its manifesto must be implemented from the Vanakalam (Kharif) crop season,” Harish Rao said.

He said that Bhatti had claimed that some 30 lakh tonnes of paddy has been procured so far which left 36 lakh tonnes yet to be purchased. “When will the government do this? Farmers are suffering with rains soaking the paddy and millers refusing to accept either the soaked, or germinated paddy,” he said.