BRS wants govt. to compensate for ryots’ losses after Montha destruction

HYDERABAD

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has said that standing crops in the northern parts of Telangana were badly damaged due to the impact of Montha cyclone, and a large number of cattle, sheep and goat also succumbed to the extremely heavy rains, and the government should compensate for the losses.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, MLA Palla Rajeshwar Reddy and MLC Tata Madhu said maize was damaged in 4 lakh acres out of over 6 lakh acres raised in the Kharif. Against the normal yield of 30 quintals per acre, the government had fixed the upper limit to procure only 18 quintals an acre under the price support scheme. Against the minimum support price of ₹2,400 per quintal, the farmers were being paid only up to ₹1,800 per acre, they said, adding that the government had procured hardly 11,000 tonnes after making a promise to buy 11 lakh tonnes from the farming community this season.

On the other hand, the woes of cotton farmers were unexplainable since the moisture content in the produce was on the higher side compared to the fair average quality of up to 12% due to the untimely rains. In the case of the paddy procurement centres, the government was yet to open about 4,000 purchase centres.

The delay in procuring the paddy brought to purchase centres had led to heavy damage/loss as lack of the required number of tarpaulin sheets had led to soaking/washing away of the stocks. The BRS leaders attributed the delay in purchasing the produce at procurement centres to lack of agreements with millers so far.