Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], May 21 : Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Working President K.T. Rama Rao (KTR) on Thursday launched a scathing attack on Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy spoke about the ongoing crop procurement crisis in the state, accusing the Congress government of pushing farmers into distress and failing to ensure the timely purchase of paddy.
In a strongly worded open letter addressed to the Chief Minister, KTR questioned the government's "silence and inaction" despite widespread protests by farmers across Telangana.
The former Telangana minister accused the Congress government of dismantling welfare measures introduced during former CM K. Chandrashekar Rao's tenure and claimed that the farming community had lost confidence under the present administration.
"Not a single farmer in the state has remained away from protests. There is not a single road where road blockades and agitations have not taken place," KTR stated.
"The farmer who lived with immense confidence for nine and a half years in Telangana has today lost all hope and has been pushed onto the streets. Farmers who celebrated believing that the hardships of six decades had finally ended were betrayed the moment Congress came to power. By burying every welfare scheme implemented by KCR for the protection of farmers over the last two and a half years, your inefficiency has broken the backbone of Telangana's farming community", KTR said.
"Today, the failures of your administration have reached their peak. For the last two months, farmers have been crying out at procurement centres because there is no one to buy the crops they cultivated with immense hardship. Due to your government's incompetence, protests, road blockades, and demonstrations by farmers are taking place across Telangana every single day. Farmers who came hoping to sell their produce are collapsing and dying at procurement centres after waiting for days, yet your government remains unmoved. If even one per cent of the attention you gave to making 70 trips to Delhi had been shown toward farmers, this situation would never have arisen. Apart from carrying bags to Delhi to protect your chair, you show no concern for purchasing the grain brought by farmers", he added.
He further alleged that farmers were being forced to burn their own paddy due to a lack of procurement and inadequate storage facilities.
"The heaps of paddy turning into ashes on Telangana roads are direct evidence of the government's incompetence," he said.
"At a time when farmer protests are erupting across the state, at least during the Cabinet meeting scheduled on the 23rd, wake up and initiate corrective measures. Purchase every crop piled up in thousands of procurement centres and immediately compensate farmers for their hard work. Also, announce compensation of ₹25 lakh each to the families of farmers who have died at procurement centres because of your government's failures. Otherwise, history will remember you forever as a betrayer of farmers", he said.
KTR also accused the government of neglecting agriculture while focusing on "political survival and land deals." He criticised the Chief Minister for making "frequent trips to Delhi" instead of addressing farmers' concerns in Telangana.
Referring to procurement arrangements during the previous BRS government, KTR said that under KCR's leadership, procurement plans were prepared months in advance and every grain cultivated by farmers was purchased, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The BRS leader demanded that the state government immediately procure all pending stocks from procurement centres and provide compensation of Rs 25 lakh each to the families of farmers who allegedly died while waiting at procurement centres.
He warned that the "countdown for the Congress government has already begun in the hands of farmers" and said the ruling dispensation would face political consequences for failing to protect the farming sector, KTR wrote.