Komatireddy challenges govt. on 24-hour supply to agriculture

Power was not supplied for more than 14 hours a day, the MP said and added he was ready to prove the same if Ministers K.T. Rama Rao and T.Harish Rao visited any sub-station in the State.

Bhongir MP Komatireddy Venkata Reddy yet again challenged the BRS government to prove that 24-hour power was being supplied to the agriculture sector and said he was ready to prove that the government was peddling lies.

At a press conference here, he said believing the claims of Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao that abundant water and power were being made available, farmers cultivated paddy on lakhs of acres. However, crops were drying up on thousands of acres as the government was unable to supply power. Power was not supplied for more than 14 hours a day, he said, adding that he was ready to prove the same if Ministers K.T. Rama Rao and T.Harish Rao visited any sub-station in the State.

He said the government should take the issue seriously and provide 24-hours power this month so that the agony of 50 lakh farmers is addressed. Farmers who lose crops should be compensated.

Mr. Reddy also criticised the Civil Supplies Minister for not reviewing the harvesting situation as paddy was ready to be harvested next month. There are no gunny bags or tarpaulin covers and machines, and IKP centres were not even ready. The CM and Ministers are occupied with elections leaving the farmers to their fate, he charged.

Criticising Mr. Harish Rao, the MP asked him to introspect on the developments in his party and also look at how the Dalit Bandhu and BC Bandhu schemes were a flop, and added that even the beneficiaries had to pay commission.

He said the government, which had failed to conduct recruitment exams properly and making the lives of lakhs of unemployed youth miserable, was criticising the Congress party. “It can’t even conduct exams properly for 6,000-odd posts that it was filling out of the 70,000 vacant posts,” he alleged.