Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka said that the BRS government had financially crippled the civil supplies department which distributes free rice to the poor and buys grain from farmers.
By neglecting the need to issue funds to the Civil Supplies Department for the purchase of grain, the department pushed thousands into the Rs 58,860 crore debt burden.
In 2014-15, the arrears of the Civil Supply Department of the that was only Rs 387 crore, but by 2024 it had increased to Rs 14,354 crore.
“Before 2014, the governments used to pay the civil supply department from time to time to buy grain from farmers. The previous BRS government burdened the civil supplies department by giving them guarantees to take loans without giving money. Due to the negligence of the BRS government, the civil supply department has been pushed into a position of taking loans to buy grain from farmers to settle old arrears,” Saji said. “The BRS government is not in a position to buy grain from farmers unless the banks gave guarantees to give loans. But it is ironic that the farmers are boasting that they are giving funds to buy the grain they have grown.”
“Even the Civil Supplies Department was not burdened before 2014 with this much debt when it distributed rice to Rs 2.82 crore beneficiaries in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.”
“In spite of this burden on the Civil Supplies Department, we have ordered the Commissioner of Civil Supply Department to distribute rice to the beneficiaries without any
difficulty to purchase and supply small rice to students, and to purchase grain without any difficulty to farmers. We are telling real things about the financial destruction carried out
by the previous government.
We will work diligently for Indiramma’s kingdom, overcoming all the financial difficulties to make the people’s dreams of developing the state come true”, Deputy CM said.
