Telangana government must take up assessment of crop damage, announce compensation package: Congress

HYDERABAD: The Congress has demanded that the Telangana government immediately take up the assessment of crop damage due to the rains in the state and announce a compensation package to the farmers.
At least Rs 1,000 crore should be released by the government to compensate the farmers for the crop loss and also to financially assist them to take up sowing operations again in case of total crop loss, said Telangana Congress working president and Malkajgiri MP A Revannth Reddy in a letter to chief minister K Chandrasekahr Rao on Wednesday.
Stating that heavy rains have inundated crops in over 5 lakh acres, he said CM KCR has left the farmers at the mercy officials. “At least the agriculture minister should immediately take up a field visit and ensure that officials conduct assessment of crop damage due to incessant rains,” he said.
Revanth came down heavily on the chief minister charging K Chandrasekhar Rao of utilizing even the heavy rains situation to project his son and municipal minister KT Rama Rao as an alternative to him for the chief minister’s post in Telangana. “KTR’s visit to Warangal was part of the move to promote KTR as the next best leader after KCR,” revanth alleged.
He found fault with the agriculture minister and department officials for stating that despite inundation, there would not be much damage to paddy crops except cotton. “The entire paddy crop along with the upper layer of fertile soil has been washed away at many places. The situation of the agricultural land is so bad that farmers cannot even go for another round of sowing operations immediately before removing the sand that has accumulated on the agriculture land,” he said.