BRS terms pruning of Rythu Bharosa against poll promise as betrayal

BRS accuses Congress government of betraying farmers by reducing investment support, breaking promises made before elections.

HYDERABAD

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has alleged that the Congress government in the State has betrayed the farming community one more time, this time in the matter of extending investment support in the name of Rythu Bharosa, as it has decided to give ₹12,000 per acre a year (for two crop seasons together) against the promise made before the Assembly elections for extending ₹15,000 per acre.

Reacting to the government decision announced by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy after the Cabinet meeting held on Saturday, senior leader of the BRS and former minister T. Harish Rao said the Cabinet decision had dashed the hopes of the farming community who had been awaiting the support due for the Kharif and Rabi seasons of the current agriculture year.

The government decision had exposed the Congress’s inability in keeping the word given to people before the elections as it had promised to give ₹7,500 per acre per season but had ultimately decided to give only ₹6,000 per acre against ₹5,000 given by the previous BRS government, Mr. Harish Rao said.

The BRS leader said the Congress government had also betrayed the tenant farmers after promising the investment support in the same measure of benefit given to the landholding farmers. The government had kept its promise only in the matter of farm workers as it had announced ₹12,000 per year support to them.

He pointed out that the Congress’s much-hyped loan waiver scheme, up to ₹2 lakh every farmer, had also left out over half of the farmers having outstanding debt in banks and had turned the promise into a mere eyewash. Further, the bonus promised to many crops was also not implemented except for paddy to some extent.

Stating that Telangana farmers would not tolerate such betrayal for long, the BRS leaders demanded that the government pay the pending Rythu Bharosa amount as also for the current Rabi season in the measure of ₹7,500 per acre, as promised by the Congress in its manifesto and Rythu declaration.