Payment of ₹432-crore bonus to paddy farmers pending for two months: Harish Rao

He said the Minister for Civil Supplies had been making tall claims of making payment to paddy farmers within 48 hours of procuring the produce.

HYDERABAD

Former minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader T. Harish Rao has alleged that the Congress government in the State is deceiving paddy farmers by delaying payment of ₹432 crore bonus for 8.64 lakh tonnes of fine varieties procured about 50 days ago.

In a letter addressed to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, he said the Minister for Civil Supplies had been making tall claims of making payment to paddy farmers within 48 hours of procuring the produce. However, the government was yet to make ₹432 crore bonus payment to farmers who had sold their 8.64 lakh tonnes of fine varieties’ paddy at the procurement centres opened by the government.

He stated that farmers from Muchhintala in Mahabubnagar district had approached the District Collector, seeking action on the delayed payment of their bonus, even two months after selling their produce. Some farmers had opted to sell at government procurement centers, despite receiving equal or better offers from private traders for fine varieties, hoping to earn extra through the promised bonus.

The Congress party had promised, as part of its Warangal Rythu Declaration, to pay a bonus for all crops but the government was not fulfilling it even in the case of one crop – fine varieties of paddy.