Farmers’ community would bear the brunt of the government’s failure to extend the crop investment support under Rythu Bandhu and the irrigation support, said Niranjan Reddy
Updated On – 22 February 2024, 06:54 PM
BRS leader and former Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy addressing a news conference at Telangana Bhavan.
Hyderabad: Voicing concern over the drastic decline in the area under the Yasangi crops in the State this year, BRS leader and former Agriculture Minister, S Niranjan Reddy on Thursday wanted to know from the State government whether it could come out with facts and figures pertaining to the area under different crops last year and so far this year.
Addressing a news conference at Telangana Bhavan, he said the farmers’ community would bear the brunt of the government’s failure to extend the crop investment support under Rythu Bandhu and the irrigation support. The Congress government had failed where the BRS government had succeeded.
Questioning the delay in the disbursement of the Rythu Bandhu assistance, he wondered as to why the government was not able to stick to its words. Delay in disbursal of the Rythu Bandhu installment had serious implications on the farm sector as a whole. The Yasangi operations were affected badly.
The former Minister recalled that the Congress government was warned against delaying the Rythu Bandhu payments. It was also advised to take time for the implementation of the guarantees. But the government priorities were different and its approach to the farm sector proved to be costly.
KCR-bashing cannot be the sole agenda of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, he said while stressing the need to have an action plan to fulfill its promises to the people of the State. The Chief Minister must spell out what his government was going to do for the people along with the timeline for implementation.
The Congress government in the undivided State had neglected the Palamuru projects for three and half to four decades and deprived the region of 174 tmc of water which it should have availed by gravity flow. The present status of projects such as Jurala, Nettempadu and Bhima owed to the Congress regimes. The Kalwakurthy project too could not realise its full potential. Reservoirs with a gross storage capacity of 3.9 tmc were built to support an ayacut of 3.90 lakh acres. If all the five pump sets installed under the project to lift water from Krishna were operated simultaneously, the carrying capacity of the canal system would prove to be inadequate.
Complete works on PRLIS: Srinivas Goud
Meanwhile, former minister V Srinivas Goud and BRS leader Devi Prasad said it would be fair enough if Chief Minister Revanth Reddy came out with facts on the spelling out the status of Palamuru after the Congress came to power in the State. The development of the Palamuru region which, got stalled during the Congress and the TDP regime, gathered pace only after BRS came to power. It would be absurd to claim that there was no development during the BRS rule. It is time to focus attention to the Palamuru Ranga Reddy Lift Irrigation Scheme. The pending works on the Palamuru Ranga Reddy Lift Irrigation scheme could be completed within three to four months. The Chief Minister should review the progress of the works on the projects. The irrigation projects being taken up by the Karnataka government in the upper reaches of Tungabhadra should be stalled by all means to safeguard the interests of the State, they stressed.
