Minister for Legislative Affairs V. Prashanth Reddy has demanded that the Centre announce a compensation of ₹10,000 per acre for crop loss suffered in several spells of untimely rains and hailstorms across the State as matching assistance to ₹10,000 per acre being provided by the State government.
Accompanied by a team of officials, the Minister examined the crops damaged in the recent unseasonal rain at Donkal village of Morthad on Sunday. He visited damaged fields of sesamum, paddy and tomato crops.
Interacting with a farmer, Santosh, whose sesamum crop was damaged in untimely rain, the Minister assured him that the authorities would assess the damage caused along with the details of the extent and recommend crop loss assistance. He told the farmer that the State government would take care of all farmers affected by nature’s ire.
The Minister told a group of farmers gathered there that the government would stand by them in their time of need. On the paddy soaked in the rain, he said the State government was trying to help the farmers by procuring soaked paddy by increasing the moisture content from 17% to 20% and issuing orders to custom-mill the soaked paddy to supply 1.28 lakh tonnes of boiled rice from it.
He stated that the government had also written to the Centre seeking relaxation in the moisture content and to also allow Telangana to supply boiled rice processed from soaked paddy as part of custom-milled rice supply to the Food Corporation of India. However, there was no response so far, he added.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders were playing double game as the Centre was refusing to take boiled rice processed from soaked and discoloured paddy on one hand and spreading misinformation among the farmers, the Minister alleged. He said there were no paddy procurement centres in any of the BJP-ruled States in the country.
Meanwhile, according to officials of the Agriculture department, the government has assessed the crop damage in the first spell of untimely rains at 2,28,258 acres — 1,29,446 acres of maize, 72,709 acres of paddy, 8,865 acres of mango and 17,238 acres of watermelon, muskmelon, tomato, brinjal and other vegetables. The process of disbursement of assistance of ₹10,000 per acre was based on the extent of damage beyond 33% as per norms.
The assessment of damage in the lateral spells of untimely rains was still in progress as they were occurring frequently, they said.
