Minister for Finance T Harish Rao on Wednesday appealed to farmers not to get disheartened and said the government would come to the rescue of all the ryots who lost their crops due to unseasonal rains.
The Minister, accompanied by District Collector Prashant Jeevan Patil, visited the rain-affected areas in the areas and inspected rain-damaged paddy crops. He interacted with the farmers who lost their crops due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms that lashed the district on Tuesday night.
Urging the farmers not to lose heart, Harish Rao said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who is always pro-farmer, already announced Rs 10,000 compensation per acre for crops that were devastated by unseasonal rains. “KCR will protect farmers at all costs,” he told the farmers.
No government in any State was paying more than Rs 2,000 or Rs 3,000 compensation per acre for crop loss. But the State government had paid Rs 10,000 per acre for crop loss last year and this year too the government would come to the rescue of farmers, he promised.
The Minister directed the Collector and the Agriculture Department officials to assess the crop damage speedily and submit a report to the government. He instructed the officials to ensure that no farmer, whose crop was damaged, is left out.
He said that the government had spent thousands of crores of money to purchase power and provide it to farmers free during the Yasangi season. But unfortunately, the natural disaster damaged the crop. The preliminary estimates showed that crops in 35,000 acres were damaged in the district. The farmers would soon get relief, he assured the ryots.
