The Opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has criticised the Congress government for denying an opportunity to the Opposition parties to seek clarifications in the Chief Minster’s reply on the Motion of Thanks to the Governor’s Address and termed the ruling party’s claims to be democratic and liberal in practice as hollow.
Speaking at the media point after the day’s session of the Assembly was adjourned on Saturday, senior legislator of BRS T. Harish Rao said they were not allowed even to register protest against the sweeping remarks made by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy in his reply. He sought to know from the ruling party how the production of foodgrains had crossed 3 crore tonnes in 2023 from over 1 crore tonnes in 2014.
It was the practice in the Assembly for long to give opportunity to the Opposition parties to seek clarifications in replies to any debate, including the Motion of Thanks to the Governor’s Address. However, the Treasury benches stifled the Opposition voice in the inaugural session of the third Assembly of Telangana itself.
He stated that as per the data released by NITI Aayog, Telangana was placed second in the country in the matter of agriculture sector growth by 6.59% during the last nine years and the NCRB data on farmers’ deaths was not just on suicides but all deaths. In fact, the farmers suicides in Telangana which were over 1,400 in 2014 had come down to 178 in 2022, Mr. Harish Rao said quoting the same NCRB data.
On branding the 1,21,965 deaths of farmers covered under Rythu Bima as farmers’ suicides and State killings, the BRS leader said they were not suicides but deaths due to illness, accidental deaths and death for all other reasons, including some suicides, which were on the constant decline from 2015.
On the increase of farm power connections, Mr. Harish Rao said the number had increased in spite of increase in the irrigation facilities as the groundwater table had improved by 6.5 metres from 2014 to 2023 in Telangana due to restoration of minor irrigation tanks, completion of projects to give water through canals, construction of checkdams and other measures.
He stated that the increase in farm power connections was directly liked to the huge increase in the production of paddy from about 65 lakh tonnes in 2014 to over 2 crore tonnes in 2023.
