Farmers demand Telangana government to bring spurious seed sellers to book

Hyderabad: The State committee of Kisan Congress demanded the government to ensure cases are booked against the companies and persons involved in selling spurious seeds to farmers.

During a meeting held with committee's district presidents in Gandhi Bhavan on Friday, Kisan Congress State committee president S Anvesh Reddy demanded the government to assess the damage caused by the recent heavy rains in the State besides issues including lack of vigilance in marketing of spurious seeds and government support to farmers produce.

Addressing the media later, he questioned the government's silence over several issues pertaining to farmers and added that the farmers who bought spurious seeds faced loss in across 42,000 acres in the State.

"We remind Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao of his promise to book spurious seed sellers under Preventive Detention Act. Even though several cases had come to light two months ago, nothing has been done against the fraudsters. Is there a nexus between officials and spurious seed sellers?" he questioned.

During the meeting, the district presidents of Kisan Congress informed that due to heavy rains some 4 lakh acres of crop, including cotton, paddy, black gram and green gram were damaged. About 50 per cent of total cotton crop and paddy in 50,000 acres went down the drain. "Despite huge damage, none of the public representatives visited the farmers to enquire about their concerns," he lamented.

The Kisan Congress president demanded the State government to pay a compensation of Rs 30,000 per acre to farmers who lost their crops to the recent rains. "The government has failed in providing urea to farmers forcing them to buy in black market and also in providing reasonable Minimum Support Price to their crops," he said. The meeting was attended by several members of the Kisan Congress.