Hyderabad: Bharatiya Janata Party Telangana unit president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Tuesday called upon the party leaders and cadre to come to the rescue of farmers who suffered heavy crop losses due to unseasonal rains and hailstorm in the last few days.
In a teleconference with the district BJP presidents, senior leaders and BJP Kisan Morcha leaders, the BJP president asked them to make field visits in the next couple of days and collect the details of various crop losses.
“Let us submit representation to the district collectors on assistance to the affected farmers in the next two days and if there was no response from the government, let us intensify our agitation,” he said.
Sanjay said the farming community across the state suffered irrecoverable loss due to continuous unseasonal rains and hailstorm. “In many places, crops about to be harvested were washed away in rains. The farmers who spent an additional amount of Rs 20,000 per acre on the crops this year suffered heavily due to hailstorm,” he said.
He said the plight of tenant farmers was unexplainable. They took the land on lease by resorting to heavy borrowings, but were now in deep distress due to crop loss. The farmers are being compelled to die by suicide due to crop loss days before harvesting and their inability to repay the debts.
The BJP president lashed out at KCR for failing to fulfil his promise of paying Rs 10,000 per acre each to farmers who had lost their crops due to unseasonal rains. “But till now, he has not paid even a single penny to the farmers,” he criticised.
He said had the government opened procurement centres well on time, 30-40 percent of farmers would not have lost their crops. As there was inordinate delay in opening the procurement centres, the harvesting got delayed as a result of which the crops were washed away in hailstorm, he said.
Sanjay also appealed to the party leaders and cadres to celebrate the 100th episode of Mann Ki Baat being held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 30. “It should be celebrated in a festive atmosphere. We shall install big television screens in each of 100 centres in each assembly constituency to see that all sections of people would view it,” he said.
Sanja said all the party functionaries should submit the details of the Booth Swashakteekaran Abhiyan programmes taken up till now to the party office by Wednesday.
