Telangana to extend financial assistance to farmers for fertilisers

Hyderabad, April 13 (IANS) In yet another sop to farmers, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday announced that the government will provide them financial assistance from the next fiscal to purchase fertilisers.

He said that the government will provide Rs 4,000 per acre to farmers, adding that the amount would be directly credited to the accounts of nearly 55 lakh farmers before the beginning of Kharif crop season in May.

Farmers in the state use 25 lakh tonnes of fertilisers every year.

The Chief Minister made the announcement when scores of farmers came to 'Pragathi Bhavan', his official residence, to thank him for fulfilling the promise of crop loan waiver.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has completed a Rs 17,000-crore loan waiver scheme with the release of Rs 4,000 crore towards the final instalment last week. With this the TRS completed a major poll promise made in 2014.

"Unprecedented in the country, we have waived loans of 36 lakh farmers amounting to Rs 17,000 crore. Now farmers have become debt free. I feel very happy now," the Chief Minister said.

"We are supplying seeds and fertilizers to farmers on time along with 9 hours free and uninterrupted power supply. We are encouraging micro-irrigation by giving more subsidies. We waived the loans. Inputs are a burden on farmers and we want to share it too," he added.

The TRS chief said the government had decided to bring in a qualitative change among the lives of farmers.

"This is the reason why we wanted to give water to 1 crore acres of land in the state. We are reviving tanks through Mission Kakatiya and supplying quality power for nine hours," he said.