Speakers at a meeting of the southern states All India Kisan Congress (Kisan Khet Mazdoor Congress) held here on Tuesday have welcomed Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s announcement of implementing minimum income guarantee scheme to every poor person in the country, if the party is voted to power in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Alleging that Fasal Bima Yojana was introduced by the BJP-led NDA government only to benefit a private insurance company, president of Kisan Congress Nana Falgunrao Patole said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not willing to implement farm loan waiver to provide some succour to farmers although he had waived ₹3 lakh crore debt of 15 corporates.
Terming Rahul Gandhi’s decision as historic, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president N. Raghuveera Reddy said it had reminded the Congress rank and file of late Indira Gandhi. Stating that Rahul Gandhi would become the next prime minister and end the woes of farmers in 100 days, Mr. Reddy suggested that a scheme for providing institutional credit to tenant farmers was very much necessary.
He accused the BJP government of diluting the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as also making the laws on land acquisition and spurious seed toothless. He also wanted the next governments to be formed at the Centre and in AP to keep the Agriculture portfolio with the Prime Minister and Chief Minster, respectively.
Direct benefit
Telangana State president of Kisan Congress M. Kodanda Reddy pointed out that instead of benefiting the farmers, Fasal Bima Yojana had benefited private insurance companies by about ₹1 lakh crore. He complimented the Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan for implementing farm loan waiver.
Former MP Konda Vishveshwar Reddy felt that direct benefit instead of support price to crops would help the farmers better. He stated that agriculture in the US was profitable as they had future markets. He suggested the governments to encourage cultivation of prickly pear cactus in the lands which had no irrigation facility as it would not require any fertiliser or pesticide. He also wanted implementation of Swaminathan Committee recommendations. Congress Legislature Party leader M. Bhatti Vikramarka, former ministers T. Jeevan Reddy, Mohd. Ali Shabbir, R. Damodar Reddy and V. Hanmanth Rao, party leder P. Sudhakar Reddy and others also spoke.