The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has alleged that the State government has deceived people and farmers one more time by going back on one more of its pre-poll promises of paying ₹500 per quintal bonus to paddy, as the Cabinet meeting held here on Monday decided to pay the bonus only to fine variety paddy, that too from the next agricultural season.
In a statement, former minister T. Harish Rao termed the partial implementation of its promise as one more betrayal. As part of its six guarantees, the Congress had promised to pay bonus of ₹500 per quintal to paddy and did not mention any condition that it would pay it only for fine varieties. He alleged that the Congress government was betraying farmers as it did with the unemployed youth on the promise of unemployment allowance of ₹4,000 per month.
He said it was a bolt from the blue to the paddy farmers who were awaiting the decision in the backdrop of losses suffered by them first due to lack of water for irrigation and later with untimely rain. He pointed out that about 90% of paddy cultivated in the State was common varieties (‘doddu vadlu’) and the remaining 10% of fine varieties would have good demand in the market and fetch more price than the minimum support price in the open market.
The BRS leader said it was only the common varieties that would require support of bonus as they fetch much lesser price than MSP in the open market. The government decision to pay the bonus only to fine varieties was nothing but deceiving farmers, he alleged.
He demanded that the government withdraw its decision to pay bonus only to fine varieties of paddy and instead pay it to entire paddy procured from the current season itself.
