Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Wednesday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to keep the cost of fertilizers maintained at the present levels and additional costs, if any, to be absorbed by the Centre so as farmers are not burdened.
In a letter to Modi, Rao said by raising the fertilizer prices, increasing fuel charges, and "faulty" fixation of Minimum Support Price (MSP), the Centre is not only contributing to a spike in the cost of cultivation to farmers but also defaulting the NDA Government's "doubling" the farmers' income.
"On behalf of crores of farmers, I request Government of India to ensure that the cost of fertilizers is maintained at the present levels and additional cost if any to be absorbed by the Government of India so that farmers are not burdened," Rao said in his letter.
Apart from announcing MSP and procuring small quantities of food grains, the Centre has no reliable mechanism of ensuring price guarantee to farmers for their crop yields, he alleged.
He further alleged that the Centre has turned a "blind eye" to the increasing prices of fertilizers during the last six years while encouraging the state to take up campaigns to reduce Urea and DAP consumption.
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Earlier in an official release, accusing the NDA government at the Centre of trying to break the farming community's back by increasing the price of fertilizers, Rao warned that the "move" will push the agriculture sector into a crisis.
KCR expressed his displeasure over the central government's tall promises that it would increase the farmer's income two-fold by 2022 and said, "it now increased the prices of fertilizers at an all-time high to break the farming community's back." He alleged that the NDA government is totally against the farmers and it is proved right beyond any doubt.
Rao alleged there is a deep conspiracy behind the Centre's policies and actions that are making the lives of farmers miserable and decisions such as installing meters to motor pump sets to collect the power charges, not linking MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) with the farm sector, increasing the fertilizers prices to all-time high and not purchasing the Paddy cultivated by the farmers, have made farmers life difficult to survive.
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The CM gave a clarion call to people in the state and across the country to root out BJP government which is weakening the rural economy, hereditary trades, playing havoc with the farm sector only to hand over agriculture sector to the corporates, the release said.
Urging the people to confront the BJP on the matter at every opportunity, KCR, as he is popularly known, made it clear that if the Centre fails to withdraw the "increased prices of fertilizers", there will be statewide and countrywide agitations against the central government.
