Ahead of KCR’s Khammam meet, Uttam Kumar recalls govt’s injustice to Khammam farmers

“When some poor ST farmers held a protest in the Khammam Mirchi Yard over not getting remunerative prices, the TRS government got them arrested and implicated them in false cases. Grievous charges, including Section 307 (murder attempt), were pressed against 10 farmers. They were sent to jail and when the 10 farmers were brought from the sub-jail to the district court, they were chained and handcuffed. This was done to send a message to all farmers across Telangana that they would be treated in the same way if they oppose the KCR government,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said in a statement on Tuesday.

Mr. Uttam Kumar said KCR will hold a huge public meeting in Khammam district on 18 January. He said before beginning his speech, KCR should tender an unconditional apology to the farmers and also announce the withdrawal of cases booked against them. Similarly, he said all cases booked against farmers for holding a protest on various issues across Telangana state since 2014 should be withdrawn.

‘KCR should be ashamed of calling himself pro-farmer’

The Congress MP said the BRS meeting in Khammam was aimed at highlighting KCR as a “pro-farmer” CM. “The BRS government did not fulfill the promise of waiving off the crop loans up to Rs. 1 lakh. Consequently, a majority of farmers are being denied fresh crop loans by bankers. Telangana’s farmers do not have any crop insurance and none of them ever got a single rupee compensation either from the BJP government at the Centre or the TRS government in Telangana when they lost their crops due to natural calamities in the last eight years,” said the Congress MP.

He added, “More than 8,000 farmers committed suicide since 2014 and not even 80 of them got compensation of Rs. 6 lakhs under GO 421. The ‘Rythu Bandhu’ scheme is just a hype as Rs. 5,000 per acre support does not help any farmer. Therefore, KCR should be ashamed of calling himself ‘pro-farmer’.”

Commenting on the participation of Chief Ministers of Delhi and Punjab in the BRS meeting, he said there was no difference between AAP and BRS as both are B-teams of BJP and their only goal is to strengthen Prime Minister Narendra Modi by weakening the Congress party. “They are trying to join hands only to deceive the common people, especially the farmers,” he said.

‘Public money spent on BRS meeting’

Further, Mr. Uttam Kumar accused the BRS government of misusing the official machinery for its party meeting and spending tax payers’ money for political publicity. He said the entire cost, including the cost of transportation and security, should be borne by the BRS and not by the public exchequer. “Expenditure on the construction of helipads, hiring of additional vehicles, movement and food of security personnel and other officials and other related costs should be borne by the BRS party,” he said.

He said the Congress party will monitor all the expenses and submit a detailed report to the Governor seeking the recovery of entire amount from the BRS. If required, the Congress party will also approach the court for recovery of the public money, he said.