Uttam condemns killing of farmers in police firing

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has blamed the wrong policies of BJP Government for the ongoing agrarian crisis across the country, including Telangana State.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Wednesday, Uttam Kumar Reddy strongly condemned the death of six farmers in police firing in Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday. He said those farmers were demanding higher crop prices to cover their input costs. Instead of listening to their demands, the BJP Government in MP used force to suppress farmers’ agitation. He said that the BJP Governments, both at the Centre and in Madhya Pradesh, have turned too arrogant to listen to poor farmers. They simply followed shoot-to-kill policy to silence the farmers' agitation, he said.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the TRS Government in Telangana was a perfect ally of BJP in terms of pursuing anti-farmer policies. He said while Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao's Government in Telangana handcuffed and chained chilli farmers of Khammam for demanding remunerative prices, his counterpart in Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan went a step ahead and permitted police firing on farmers which claimed six lives. He said both BJP and TRS have failed to exhibit their skills to handle crisis. In fact, he said that the failure of both BJP and TRS in fulfilling the election promises have aggravated the agrarian crisis.

The Congress leader said that the agriculture sector was in a complete state of neglect, especially in Telangana. He said thousands of farmers lost their crops due to spurious seeds and fertilizers. He said neither any affected farmer was paid any compensation nor action has been taken against the guilty firms. He said Girijan farmers in Khammam were harassed and humiliated by the TRS Government when they demanded better prices for their chilli produce. He said the images of handcuffing of farmers would remain fresh in the memories of Telangana people. Speaking about Fasal Bima Yojna, he said during Kharif 2016, as against the premium of Rs. 17,184 crore, farmers got only Rs. 6,808 crore for the damages that they incurred. Therefore, he said private companies earned Rs. 10,376 crore due to Central scheme while farmers continued to suffer. He said not a single farmer in Telangana benefitted from the scheme. Similarly, he said that Modi Government has failed to fulfil its promise of implementing Swaminathan Committee recommendations in procurement of crops. He said despite severe crisis, TRS Govt too did not intervene by spending even one rupee to help out the farmers.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the conditions for farmers have turned worse during Modi and KCR regimes wherein thousands of farmers were being pushed towards suicide. He said that the Congress party was all set to come to power in 2019 elections and it would completely resolve the agrarian crisis. He said besides waiving off crop loans up to Rs. 2 lakh, the Congress Govt would provide bonus on all crops to the farmers in addition to the MSP provided by the Centre.

He also reiterated the Congress party's demand for a CBI probe into Miyapur land scam. He alleged that the TRS Government was trying to hush up the land scam as it did with Vote for Note, EAMCET-2 paper leakage, Nayeem Gang and other cases. He said that the officials of Chief Minister's Office too are suspected to be involved in the scam and therefore, the government accept Congress party’s demand for a CBI probe.