BJP Must Fulfill Its Poll Promises First: Tummala

Hyderabad:Agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao said the BJP leaders should be holding dharnas in Jantar Mantar seeking fulfillment of the 23 promises made by the Centre during the polls. One-upmanship between the BJP leaders over each other with an eye on the state party president post is spilling over. The government has not said that the loans of all the 42 lakh farmers have been waived and the process would be completed by the end of the year.

Addressing the media at the Secretariat, he said, “The BJP which failed to keep its promise of doubling farmers’ income or implement Swaminathan Committee recommendations has no moral authority to talk about them. No BJP government has ever waived farmers’ loans. They should implement waivers in states ruled by them like us and then criticise, Rao said.

“Passed the three black (farm) laws by the BJP led to the deaths of hundreds of farmers. The Congress government spent `18,000 crore in 26 days and waived the loans of 22 lakh farmers. Loans above `2 lakh will also be waived once the modalities are decided.” The state government, the minister said, paid Rs 7,656 crore Rythu Bandhu left unpaid by the previous BRS government. The government has so far identified 3.5 lakh families who don’t have ration cards and they will receive waiver benefits soon, the minister said.

The Centre after taking away the source of all state finances through GST is not giving the state its due. “The Centre owes us Rs 2,700 crore but only gave Rs 1,300 crore. While the Centre gives Rs 6,000 per year for a family the state is giving Rs 5,000 per acre,” Nageswara Rao said.

In a release the minister informed that the increase in import duty on palm oil from 5.5 per cent to 27.5 per cent has resulted in the rate hike of Rs 17,043 per one lot of fruit. This is an increase of Rs 2,651 per lot and will benefit 9,366 palm oil farmers by Rs 12 crores this month.

It may be recalled that the agriculture minister had sought an increase in import duties when he met the Union minister for agriculture Shivraj Singh Chauhan. The state currently produces 2.80 lakh tonnes of oil with cultivation in 44,444 acres. “The increase in prices will incentivise the farmers to take up oil palm. As of now, 14 companies have been given permissions for increasing the acreage of the crop which currently stands at 2.23 lakh acres,” the minister said.