Hyderabad: 'One-nation one-market' move delays KCR's surprise gift

Hyderabad: The race for one-upmanship seems to be on. The decision of the Union Cabinet to introduce 'one-nation one-market' scheme seems to have created a temporary roadblock to the surprise gift which Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was planning to announce soon for the benefit of farmers.

The Chief Minister soon after inaugurating the Kondapochamma project had stated that he would come up with a surprise gift for the farmers. Even while the scheme was getting ready, the Centre announced the 'one-nation one-market' scheme. The government feels that this Central scheme could become a game changer as it has come in for appreciation from agricultural experts and has got a good response from across the country.

Hence KCR has decided to further fine-tune his proposals and come up with a more power-packed scheme to win over the farmers in the state so that the 'one-nation one-market' scheme should not become a stumbling block for the regulated farming scheme which he has announced.

He wants to come up with a scheme that would offer better benefits than the Central scheme. The Chief Minister feels that the proposed new scheme should come as a real surprise for the farmers and for the Centre too.

With the Centre permitting the farmers to enter into an agreement with corporate companies and cultivate crops which would give good returns to them, it is felt that the farmers in Telangana might get attracted for cooperative farming and market the produce through network to be created by the Centre.

According to a key source, KCR now wants to create a strong mechanism to address the farmers' issues mainly crop production, marketing and providing MSP through a single window. He wants to come up with a scheme which could throw a challenge to the Central scheme. The biggest challenge before the Telangana government is to make regulated farming a profitable for which creation of strong marketing network for all the crops is necessary.

Along with it, establishment of food processing units extensively either under public – private participation mode or exclusively by private bodies at local level is necessary. In the backdrop of this, sources said KCR is likely to take some more time to announce the surprise gift to the farmers.