Telangana: Agriculture Act just diverts attention from real problems of farmers

Hyderabad: Telangana Rythu Rakshana Samithi on Wednesday said that the new Agriculture Act brought by the Centre will increase the income of corporate companies.

Samithi president P Srihari Rao said that though there are many problems of the farmers in the country, which need government attention, the Centre has brought an Act which provides facility of selling agriculture produce anywhere in the country, which no farmer in the country had demanded. The new Act was nothing but diverting the attention from the problems being faced by the farmers, said Srihari Rao.

Srihari Rao said that the government aspires to double the income of the farmers by 2022 and for this to happen the minimum support price should increase by 25 per cent every year but the Centre has not taken any step in this direction. The government should take steps to ensure the insurance companies provide compensation to the farmers when the crop gets damaged but the Centre is not taking steps in his direction. He said that the Fasal Beema Yojna of the Centre was not accepted even by a single State government in the country.

The Samithi president said that the Centre is not accepting the demand of the farmers to link the Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Scheme to agriculture. The banks should provide loans to the farmers for their needs like education and marriages of their children, construction of houses etc., and also provide pensions to the farmers above 55 years, the Samithi president said.