Declare agriculture emergency, Congress

Hyderabad: The Telangana Congress leaders on Wednesday demanded that the State government declare ‘agriculture emergency’ in Telangana State. Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Kisan Cell chairman M Kodanda Reddy, along with A Krishna and Jagan Naik, claimed that nearly 500 farmers had committed suicide since the formation of the TRS government in the State.

He alleged that the State government not only failed to honour its promise of waiving off crop loans, but took no steps to ensure adequate power supply during the Khariff season. Several factors, especially the State government's apathy, pushed nearly 500 farmers to suicide in the last few months. Therefore, he demanded that the government declare ‘agricultural emergency’ in the State.

Kodanda Reddy said the farmers owe nearly Rs 23,000 crore loans to different banks. But the State government has considered waiver of loans to the tune of nearly Rs 17,000 crore. Further, only Rs 4,250 crore was released towards the first instalment. He said there was no clarity on when the remaining dues would be cleared. He said the government should release a white paper on the issue. The Congress leaders demanded that the government depute a Minister as in-charge for one district each and collect entire data related to farmers.

He said Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao could not be a mute spectator to the situation and should accept his responsibility to give concrete assurance to farmers.

Protect the poor in land issues

Congress also alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao was using poor people as shield to benefit land grabbers by bringing in a law to regularise lands. He said the main motive of the government was not protection of government lands, but raising funds to implement various schemes announced by KCR.At a press conference on Wednesday, Telangana Congress spokesperson G Niranjan said the Congress was ready to support the land regularisation Bill provided the government ensures that the interests of the poor were protected.

He demanded that the government submit the entire list of those who encroached upon government lands before the next all-party meeting to be held on December 16. The Congress leader also rejected the proposal of construction of Vinayak Sagar for the immersion of Ganesh idols.

He said a small tank could never act as a replacement for Hussainsagar for immersion of thousands of Ganesh idols. He said before speaking to the Opposition parties, the Chief Minister should consult the officials concerned and other stake holders on the issue. Niranjan also demanded that the Chief Minister undertake an aerial survey of the proposed Metro Rail route before taking a final decision. He ridiculed the contention of Hyderabad Metro Rail authorities that they were yet to take up the survey of Metro Rail route in the Old City. He asked at to how the HMR officials finalised the corridor before conducting the survey.

He alleged that the HMR officials were making statements at the behest of MIM and were indirectly supporting it to change the Metro Rail alignment. He also alleged that MIM was not serious in the development of Old City and that was the reason why it wanted to deprive the people of benefits of Metro Rail project.