Hyderabad: The Congress has strongly defended the state Cabinet's decision to extend Rs 500 per quintal bonus to only those farmers who grow fine varieties of paddy (sanna vadlu).
Agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao and Congress Kisan Cell chairman S. Anvesh Reddy on Wednesday said the Cabinet decision was taken to encourage farmers to sow fine varieties of paddy as there was a huge demand for 'sanna biyyam' and there were no takers for 'doddu biyyam' (non-fine varieties of rice).
In a media statement on Wednesday, minister Nageswara Rao said that the consumption of non-fine varieties of rice had drastically come down not only in Telangana but in the rest of the country. Due to this, a huge quantity of non-fine varieties of rice was lying waste in godowns.
Nageswara Rao said the state government was supplying 24 lakh tonnes of non-fine variety rice through ration shops but there are large scale complaints and reports of beneficiaries not consuming this rice and instead selling to others. This is resulting in wastage of a huge amount of public money towards rice subsidy.
"To avoid this, the Congress government is planning to supply a fine variety of rice (sanna biyyam) through ration shops even to beneficiaries of public distribution schemes. For this, we need to procure a large quantity of fine variety of paddy. To encourage farmers to sow a fine variety of paddy, the Cabinet has decided to extend `500 per quintal bonus to them. What's wrong with this decision? We will also give a bonus to farmers who cultivate non-fine varieties of paddy in later phases," Nageswara Rao said.
Speaking to media persons in Gandhi Bhavan on Wednesday, Anvesh Reddy alleged that the opposition BRS and BJP are trying to create panic among paddy farmers by undertaking false propaganda of procurement and bonus.
Anvesh Reddy said the BRS and the BJP were trying to create a false impression that farmers in Telangana cultivate only non-fine varieties of paddy and giving bonus to fine varieties of paddy would serve no purpose.
"The agriculture department shows that farmers in Telangana cultivated fine varieties of paddy in 14 lakh acres and non-fine varieties in 32 lakh acres. Lakhs of farmers in the state who sow fine variety paddy in upcoming kharif will benefit with `500 per quintal bonus. The Congress government is also committed to give the bonus to non-fine varieties in the next phase."
