Sharmila brings truck-load of damaged crops from Khammam for KCR

Hyderabad: Y.S. Sharmila, the chief of YSR party Telangana, brought a truck-load of damaged crops from Khammam to send it to Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao at Pragati Bhavan to show him the damages caused by unseasonal rains.

The truck is now parked at the YSR Telangana party office in Banjara Hills, and the Banjara Hills police are preventing the truck from being taken out.

Rains in Telangana have led to unprecedented losses for farmers. Rains in the last week of April have damaged rice crops in the state.

On Sunday, Sharmila visited Khammam, Jangaon, and Mahabubabad districts to assess the damages caused to the farmers due to the unseasonal rains. During her assessment, it was decided to carry the damaged crops to Hyderabad to show the actual damage caused.

On her tour of the districts, Sharmila also suffered from mild illness, reportedly due to fatigue from travelling.

Demand for Rs. 30,000 per acre

Speaking about crop losses due to the rains, Sharmila said, “The crop loss due to unseasonal rains is about 10 lakh acres but not a single official or MLA has visited farmers or inspected the losses. I have brought the damaged crops in a truck to show Chief Minister KCR.”

Stating that KCR’s promise of Rs. 10,000 per acre is insignificant, she said, “We demand Rs. 30,000 per acre. The procurement of harvested paddy must begin immediately.”

Compensation rules

Norms as per the National Disaster Relief Fund state Rs. 5,400 per acre compensation for irrigated crops and Rs. 2,700 per acre for rainfed crops.

The KCR government announced Rs. 10,000 per acre compensation for all crops, irrespective of whether they were irrigated or rainfed.

Kiran Vissa, the co-founder of Rythu Swarajya Vedika, said the demand of Rs. 30,000 per acre is not feasible.

The total assessed damage in the month of March was 1.51 lakh acres. After the rains in April-end, the assessment is yet to be done.