HYDERABAD: The BJP demanded on Monday that the state government provide immediate crop compensation to farmers affected by the recent untimely rains and hailstorms, claiming that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao's announcement of Rs 10,000 per acre compensation to farmers who lost their crop was a sham.
Party state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who met with farmers from Karimnagar and Choppadandi constituencies on Monday, said the Chief Minister merely made promises of financial aid to farmers but never followed through. The BJP would stage a state-wide agitation to protest the BRS state government's inability to provide compensation.
He stated that when crops were damaged last month, the Chief Minister visited Ramadugu mandal in Karimnagar and promised that the government would offer Rs 10,000 per acre as crop loss compensation and that Rs 288 crore would be released for the purpose. Officials then stated that rains had destroyed crops on 23,000 acres, but this figure has since been reduced to 8,000 acres, with no compensation issued to farmers so far, he claimed.
Sanjay said the Chandrashekar Rao-led BRS government does not allow farmers to avail the Centre's crop insurance scheme, and does not have any alternative that Telangana farmers can benefit from. Further, deliberate delays in the opening of procurement centres resulted in even more losses for farmers who harvested their crops and carried them to the centres only to have them destroyed by the rains.
Sanjay promised several farmers whose farmlands he visited that the BJP will support them, while noting that the most recent bout of heavy rains and hailstorms destroyed crops on another 24,000 acres. “The government is sitting on nearly Rs 3,000 crore of disaster relief funds given by the Centre. Why can’t it use these funds to help the farmers in the state? If the state government does not provide compensation immediately, the BJP will launch an agitation on behalf of the farmers,” he said.
