Farmers Movement Archive

Telangana will not pass resolution against 3 new farm laws: CM K Chandrasekhar Rao

HYDERABAD: Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday refused to pass a resolution against the new farm laws in the state assembly. The CM said the state government would like to maintain cordial relations with the Centre as both the state and Centre are elected governments but, at the same time, Telangana will not compromise on the interests of the state. “The government of India is ultimate in the country. Once the Centre enacts a law, no state government has the right to override it. Unfortunately, both Congress and the BJP governments have encroached upon the state government’s powers and even made laws on the issues that are in the concurrent list in the Constitution such as agriculture. This started during the Congress regime,” KCR said in the assembly. Responding to Congress floor leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka’s demand that the state government should pass a resolution on new agriculture laws in the assembly on the lines of Punjab, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan governments, KCR claimed those resolutions were an ‘eyewash’. He said the TRS government had made its stand clear on the farm laws earlier. “Whatever we have to say, we said both in the assembly and outside the assembly earlier. Prime Minister Modi is of the view that the three new agriculture laws are beneficial to the farmers. Now the situation is totally uncertain and waiting for the court’s decision and Centre’s response on the issue,” he said. He assured that the state government would procure paddy by continuing market committees and provide minimum support price (MSP) to paddy. “Telangana was the only state in the country that procured all crops last year even when we were hit by Covid-19 and spent nearly Rs 50,000 crore,” he said. Explaining how the state was progressing in agriculture, especially in bringing one crore acres under cultivation, the CM said when Telangana was created, paddy cultivation in the state was just 12 lakh acres. Now it has risen to 58 lakh acres, while AP’s paddy cultivation stands at 20 lakh acres and 24 lakh acres in Tamil Nadu, he said. He also dismissed the comments of opposition leaders, including Bhatti Vikramarka, that the state government was in a debt trap, while giving a list of achievements of the government on subject such as irrigation, agriculture, power, loan waiver to farmers and Dharani. He attacked the earlier Congress government, alleging that the party ruined the state during its rule while claiming that the state progressed only in the past six years after TRS came to power.

The Times of India

2021-03-18

Hyderabad