Centre threw crumbs at Telangana for crop damage: Tummala
Hyderabad: Agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao said BJP leaders should question the Centre for giving a meagre Rs 400 crore for crop damage in the recent floods even as the state sought an assistance of over Rs 10,000 crore. He also stated that the state government would spend Rs 2,000 crore to pay Rs 500 as bonus to farmers for fine variety rice.
“The coarse variety rice that the Centre is supplying for PDS is being misused,” the minister said in a press note. “The state government is spending Rs 2,000 crore to avoid this situation by supplying fine variety rice through ration shops. Plans are underway to supply the same rice to welfare hostels.”
He said that the number of centrally sponsored PM Kisan beneficiaries in the state had fallen from 37 lakh when the scheme was launched, to 30 lakh currently. “Can the BJP leaders explain this,” Nageswara Rao asked.
In the release, the minister said, “The state government never said that loans of all farmers had been waived. He said Congress government was ready to spend Rs 31,000 crore and clear the loans above Rs 2 lakh.
Of the 65.56 lakh farmers, 42 lakh had taken crop loans from banks. Of them 22 lakh received their loans waived, and the rest will also be extended the benefit soon. He pointed out that the previous BRS government had waived the loans of only 20 lakh farmers, that too in the last year of its term in 2018.