Cash crunch impedes kharif ops: Uttam

TPCC chief skewers Central and State governments for failing to ensure crop loans to farmers

Suryapet: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President N Uttam Kumar Reddy has urged the State government to take measures on war-footing to provide cash and other facilities to farmers during the Kharif season.

Addressing a largely attended public meeting Garidepally Praja Garjana in his Huzurnagar Assembly constituency in Suryapet district on Sunday evening, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the farming activities in the ongoing Kharif season were badly hit due to severe cash and credit crunch.

Quoting the latest report of Agriculture Department released on July 5, he said in the kharif season, only 18.81 lakh hectares were covered out of 43.24 lakh hectares so far. Describing the situation as alarming, he said the farmers were unable to reap the benefits of a good monsoon due to the apathy of the TRS government.

The TPCC President said the State-level Bankers’ Committee, at its meeting on July 7, had admitted that so far an amount of Rs 4,700 crores had been disbursed to only 7.65 lakh farmers.

This is much less than the actual amount needed by the farmers. He recalled that the Congress party had made representations to both Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and SLBC, demanding that they provide required financial assistance to the farmers in the State. But the farmers were not getting timely help from any quarter.

He said neither Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao nor Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy understood the gravity of the situation. He said ideally the Chief Minister should have convened a special meeting with the SLBC to bail out the farmers.

He felt that the Chief Minister himself should have spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to resolve the problem of cash crunch.

The TPCC chief said a majority of farmers were being denied fresh loans due to the non-clearance of fourth instalment of crop loan waiver scheme by the TRS government. He said despite making claims of waiving of crop loans, the State government was yet to clear the fourth instalment for majority of farmers.

He said banks should be directed to issue fresh loans to farmers by keeping the issue of pending loans in abeyance till kharif season is over. Uttam Kumar Reddy also criticised the Central government for turning a blind eye to the grievances and concerns of Telangana farmers.

He said Telangana farmers have been losing crop after crop due to the indifferent attitude of both Central and State governments. He blamed the BJP government at the Centre and TRS government in the State for over 3,000 farmers' suicides during the last three years. The Central government should provide required cash in rural banks on immediate basis to ensure that sowing is not affected in the ongoing Kharif season.

He said the Centre should also ensure that all farmers get insurance cover for their crops. The insurance penetration was around 18 per cent in terms of area covered during Kharif 2016. The coverage should be cent per cent in this Kharif season, he demanded. The TPCC chief also slammed the TRS government for its anti-farmer policies.

He reiterated that the Congress party, if voted to power in 2019, would waive crop loans up to Rs. 2 lakh in a single instalment. He said that market intervention fund would be introduced to provide remunerative prices to farmers for their produce.

Earlier, Uttam Kumar Reddy inaugurated the warehouse of a cooperative society. After the Garidepally Praja Garjana meeting, a massive rally was also taken out by the Congress party activists.