Congress demands Rs 20k per acre compensation to farmers in Telangana

HYDERABAD: Stating that the heavy rains have damaged the quality and quantity of crops in lakhs of acres in Telangana, the Congress has urged the state and Central governments to not only relax procurement norms of various crops but also announce Rs 20,000 per acre compensation to the farmers.
Congress MLC T Jeevan Reddy said instructions should be immediately issued to the officials at the procurement centres to accept all varieties of paddy.Also, the government should fix a price of Rs 2500 per quintal towards the minimum support price of a fine variety of paddy (fine rice). It is unfortunate that chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has not come out of Pragathi Bhavan, his camp office-cum-residence despite the fact that thousands of families have been rendered homeless due to inundation of their houses and colonies following heavy rains in Greater Hyderabad and other parts of the State.
“The chief minister should at least take up an aerial survey to see the extent of damages caused to the crops, lives and properties of the people in the State. Paddy, cotton, maize and almost all varieties of crops have been damaged due to heavy rains,” Jeevan Reddy said. Farmers cultivated a fine variety of rice following the government diktat under regulated cropping policy. “Now, it is the responsibility of the TRS government to buy the fine variety of rice (paddy) from the farmers,” he demanded.