Telangana Congress govt trying to do away with Rythu Bandhu, says Harish Rao

Hyderabad: Senior BRS leader and Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao accused the Congress government of hatching a conspiracy to do away with the Rythu Bandhu scheme launched by the previous BRS government. He demanded the government to give clarity on the implementation of the scheme and immediately release the pending Vanakalam and Yasangi season amount.Harish Rao said it was deplorable that Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageshwar Rao was claiming that the farmers were saying that the bonus of Rs 500 given to fine rice was better than that of Rythu Bandhu. The BRS leader reminded that Rythu Bandhu was the only scheme in the world that had provided investment assistance to farmers, and the United Nations praised it.The Congress government announced to buy 5,19,605 quintals of fine rice with a bonus of Rs 500 per quintal out of the total yield of 1.53 crore tonnes produced in the State, he said, adding that according to this calculation, the bonus received by the farmers should be only about Rs 26 crore. Whereas, Rs 7,500 crore per year would need to be deposited in the farmers’ accounts under Rythu Bandhu and if the government pays Rs 15,000 per acre as stated in the manifesto, this will be even more, he pointed out.“How paying Rs 500 per quintal to farmers is better than the Rythu Bandhu scheme, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Agriculture Minister should tell the farmers,” he said.When Congress came to power it waived loans of half of the farmers and did not provide crop loan waiver to remaining farmers, causing huge loss to them, he said, adding that the Chief Minister said he would provide bonus for all crops, and finally he limited it to fine rice only. And now the Congress was trying to abolish Rythu Bandhu permanently, he alleged.He reminded that BRS president and former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had earlier warned that Rythu Bandhu would be stopped if the Congress party came to power and as expected, the Revanth Reddy government was taking steps in that direction.“Have the farmers, tenant farmers, and labourers who are waiting for the farmer’s assurance to come have been deceived? Is Revanth Reddy organizing a Rythu festival because he has successfully deceived the farmers? Should he celebrate his victory for betraying the farmers after coming to power by promising to do so in the manifesto? The BRS party strongly condemns the conspiracy to stop the Rythu Bandhu scheme brought by KCR to change the lives of farmers,” he posted on X.