Crop damage compensation met from Central SDRF funds: Bandi Sanjay Kumar

Hyderabad: State BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Friday lashed out at Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for misleading people claiming that the Centre had not extended financial assistance to farmers of Telangana. He said that in 2016-17 the Centre had released Rs 916 crore towards financial assistance to the State farmers, but the government had not spent even Rs 700 crore.

"The CM has not been sending any reports to the Centre seeking fresh financial assistance to calamity-hit farmers, because he is afraid that the Centre would ask for accounts for previous assistance," he asserted, adding that the government had not implemented the promise of supplying free urea to farmers nor had it fulfilled the crop loan waiver promise.

Bandi said KCR's claim of paying compensation to farmers affected by unseasonal rains entirely from the government resources was a blatant lie. "The GO clearly stated that the assistance was from the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) of which 75 per cent is borne by the Centre. Why has KCR not disclosed it?" he asked.

Dubbaka MLA M Raghuandan Rao pointed out that the CM took up welfare of farmers only after eight years in the election year.

He said KCR had announced on the floor of the House that the government does not recognise 'tenant farmers'. But, since it is an election year the GO issued recently says it would compensate tenant farmers Rs 10,000/acre. He demanded the Agriculture department to prelease a white paper on district-wise number of tenant farmers.

He also demanded the CM to disclose the compensation given as promised during his tour of Jaishankar-Bhupalapalli, Mulugu and Bhadradri-Kothagudem districts on July 17 last year. Rao wondered as to when and how the Agriculture department had surveyed and assessed the crop damage in 2.20 lakh acres?

Taking a dig at KCR's claim of the Centre failing to give any financial assistance on account of crop damage, he said that the Centre had released Rs 3,000 crore to SDRF in 2014.

In financial years 2021-22, the Centre had allocated Rs 359.20 crore as its share of 75 per cent and the State had not released its share of Rs 120 crore. It had divided the Centrally allocated funds and paid compensation by dividing them into two equal trenches of Rs 179.60 crore. During the current financial year, the Centre has allocated Rs 377.60 crore. The State government has not released its share of Rs 120.60 crore but claims to have spent Rs 188.8 crore released by the Centreand did not spend a single rupee from its share of contribution to SDRF.

He dared the CM to release a white paper on how many times it has sent reports of crop damage to the Centre, how much money was spent and the utilisation certificates submitted.