Centre, State playing with lives of farmers: Uttam

Kodad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday accused the Central and State governments of playing with the lives of farmers.

Addressing a press conference at Kodad on Saturday, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the Central government was misleading the farmers on procurement of chilli produce. He said the Centre proposed to purchase only 10 per cent of the total produce and it did not give details of the mechanism through which the chillies would be purchased.

The Centre did not mention whether the chilli would be procured through Markfed or other agencies. Describing the move as "too little and too late," he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should also be held responsible for the ongoing agrarian crisis in the State.

Uttam Kumar Reddy recalled that during 2014 elections, Narendra Modi had promised to implement the Swaminathan Commission recommendations relating to procurement of agriculture produce by paying 50 per cent of amount in addition to the total input cost incurred by farmers.

He said the promise was repeated at more than 100 public meetings addressed by Modi. However, the Central government had completely had shrugged off its responsibility in procurement of produce.

The TPCC chief strongly condemned Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for remaining indifferent to the plight of farmers in the State. He pointed out that the State government, through PJTSAU’s Department of Agricultural Economics, issued a forecast stating the chilli price per quintal would be around Rs 11,000-11,400 at the time of harvesting in February-March 2017.

Based on this advisory, more than one lakh farmers cultivated chilli instead of cotton expecting high prices. However, instead of ensuring procurement of chilli, the Chief Minister is blaming overproduction as the reason for fall in chilli prices. He blamed the Chief Minister for not ordering market intervention despite the protests by farmers.

"Is it not the responsibility of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to bail out chilli farmers? He must visit Market Yards to understand the ground reality and take immediate and appropriate steps to help the chilli farmers. He is holding superficial meetings by sitting at Pragathi Bhavan. Besides ensuring procurement of entire chilli for Rs 12,000 per quintal, the State government should pay compensation to the farmers for causing them pain and agony," he demanded.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said the apathy on the part of the State government was driving many farmers to commit suicide. "Instead of immediately setting up market intervention fund to help the farmers who cultivated chilli, turmeric, onion, paddy and other crops, the Chief Minister is promising to pay Rs 4,000 per acre fertiliser subsidy from next year.

This is nothing but an election gimmick. He also condemned the arrests of farmers, who held protests to press for their genuine demands, he said, The TPCC chief asked the Chief Minister to at least emulate the neighbouring States in helping the chilli farmers.

He said while neighbouring Andhra Pradesh had announced a supportive price of Rs 1,500 per quintal, Karnataka is paying bonus in addition to the market prices to farmers. He said while the TRS government goes an extra mile to pay to contractors, it did not do anything to help the distressed farmers.