'Abki Bar Kisan Sarkar' echoes across the country: Harish Rao

Hyderabad: Finance Minister T Harish Rao said the slogan of 'Abki Bar Kisan Sarkar' reverberates across the north, south, east, and west of the country. Replying to the members' discussion on the budget proposals on Wednesday, he argued that the BJP-led centre is acting in vengeance against the farmers.

Giving details of the recently presented Union Budget, he said that the Centre has imposed cuts in the subsidies of fertilizers, Prime Minister Fasal Bhima Yojana, PM Kisan Samman Yojana, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), and the allocations made to the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) creates fears that the CCI would be stepping out from the procuring cotton providing MSP to the cotton farmers. Similarly, earlier, the Market Intervention Fund was allocated Rs 1,500 crore, but the same stands at Rs 1 lakh in the newly proposed budget for 2023-24.

The cut on the fertiliser subsidies stood at Rs 50,000 crore, and only Rs 1 lakh was allocated for the procurement of cotton. It looks like since farmers had forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to tender an apology and to take back the black farm laws, the BJP at the centre is acting with a vengeance against the farmers, he added.

The BJP promised to double the farmers' income and give legal sanctity to the MSP. But both promises have been left unaddressed. While the state minister of finance, Ranadip Singh Surjewala, replied to a question in the parliament that the government has waived Rs 19 lakh crore to corporate entities in the past six years. But, the Centre was allowing funding of drying platforms for fish under the MGNREGA scheme but demanded Telangana for taking up platforms to dry paddy. The state government is returning Rs 151 crore spent on the same, he said.

The situation of Congress is no different since they could not trust the grand old party, the people in Punjab have voted for AAP, he said. For the past two to three years, farmers in different states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Maharashtra have been demanding their state governments to implement schemes, and policies that exist in Telangana.

The Centre has reduced the surcharge on the incomes of the super-rich from 37 to 25 per cent. Similarly, the corporate surcharge has been reduced by 12 per cent. But, the prices of LPG cylinders have been increased to Rs 1200 and petroleum prices have increased to Rs 100, he said.