Centre does nothing for flood-hit farmers: Agri Min

Hyderabad: Agriculture Minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy on Friday slammed the Centre for doing nothing for the welfare of State farmers. The Minister responding to the questions raised by MLCs T Jeevan Reddy and Seri Subhash Reddy in the State Legislative Council on the issue of the crop insurance scheme and increased area of agriculture in the State.

He alleged that the Central government had not bought the food grains from the State as part of its vendetta politics and added that Central government did not relent even after holding of a day-long fast by the entire State cabinet including the Chief Minister KCR.

Stating that the Central government claimed that it has enough stocks for three years, he said that it had stopped the exports of rice by citing shortage of rice within six months of making the statement.

He criticised that the Central government did not have a policy on agriculture, which is the main sector on which the majority of the country depends.

He said that the Centre was not bothered about the cultivation of crops in the country and the needs of the people. He said that In the event of a natural calamity, the Centre had not released a penny for the farmers who have lost their crops. Reddy said that the way the Centre is responding in times of disaster was ridiculous he said that the Centre did not give a single rupee to Hyderabad despite the rains and losses and added that they had disbursed Rs 151 crore to farmers whose crops had been damaged due to the untimely rains and added that they would also help the rest of the farmers.

Commenting on the PM FasalBhima Yojana crop insurance scheme, he claimed that the home state of PM Gujarat, Bihar and West Bengal were not implementing the Pradhan Mantri FasalBima Yojana and reminded that the Telangana government had implemented the Fasal Bhima yojana for four years. He said that the farmers got - compensation of only Rs 1893 crores as against the payment of a premium of Rs 2415 crores to the insurance companies and added that the Insurance companies had benefitted by Rs 522 crore. Reddy said that the Centre should take aninitiative for the insurance scheme in the agriculture sector while noting that there should be a national debate in this regard.