Leaders demand more funds for farming

Khammam: Both the Central and State governments were acting against the interests of the agriculture sector, observed the farmer wing leaders, who participated in the round table meeting on budget, agriculture and drought. Speaking at the meeting here on Friday, the Telangana Rythu Sangham district president Madineni Ramesh blamed both the Centre and State for not allocating adequate funds to the agriculture sector.

“There is an imminent need to increase the budget allocation by at least 10 per cent,” he said, referring to the jacked up input costs due to the mechanization of farming methods. Rythu Sangham district general secretary Nunna Nageswar Rao accused the State government of not being sensitive towards the suicides of the farmers.

“At least 1,800 farmers, who trapped in mounting debts, in the State ended their lives since June 2, 2014. Despite this fact, the government which allocated 6.75 per cent of the State budget in 2014-15, has reduced it to 5.18 per cent this fiscal,” Nageswar Rao said.

Though the district administration have identified 340 mandals as drought-affected, the government downsized it to 231 mandals, he said, deploring that not even single mandal in Khammam district was identified as drought-hit, he said, blaming Minister for Roads and Buildings Tummala Nageswar Rao for not reacting to the situation.

He demanded the government to declare the district as drought-affected, besides announcing Rs 10,000 input subsidy per acre. AIKMS leaders Gokinapalli Venkateswar Rao, Koleti Nageswar Rao, Telangana Vyavasaya Karmika Sangham state general secretary Macha Venkateswar Rao, Tenant Farmers Association district secretary Bhaskar Rao, KVPS district general secretary Nandipati Manohar, Adapa Ramakotaiah, Malsoor and Katta Gandhi also spoke at the meeting.