The chief minister, who was on a visit to the northern Telangana districts of Karimnagar and Adilabad, told a meeting of farmers that the premium under the scheme would be paid by the government and it would cover death due to accidents as well as ill health.
He also announced a farmers’ investment incentive scheme for horticultural crops.
Under this scheme the government will pay incentive of Rs4,000 per acre per crop.
In cases where a farmer foregoes the incentive, the government will transfer the amount to the respective farmers’ coordination committee.
The chief minister said the purpose of the regional farmers coordination committee meetings was to understand problems being faced by farmers and resolving them.
In his first direct attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, KCR expressed disappointment over his failure to act on farmers’ problems.
He told the meeting that he had met the prime minister and Cabinet members in the NDA government 20 times, requesting them to link the national rural employment guarantee scheme with agriculture.
“They will only listen but do nothing,” he said.
He blamed the incumbent BJP and the previous Congress governments at the centre for the plight of the farmers in the country. To the loud cheers from the audience he said that he may have to lead a national movement on the issue of farmers.
“Since independence only Congress and BJP have ruled the country and neglected the agriculture sector”, he said.
“When the union government in increasing the salaries and DA with pay revision every year [for the employees] why it is not increasing the minimum support price of farm produce every year”, he asked.
Source - http://m.gulfnews.com
