Hyderabad: The Congress party on Tuesday demanded that the Telangana State Election Commission direct the State Government to stop Farmers’ Survey till the completion of local body elections.
Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Official Spokesperson Syed Nizamuddin said that the proposed survey on farmers was a violation of Model Code of Conduct and an attempt by TRS Government to misuse official machinery in favour of ruling party.
He informed that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao announced about the Farmers’ Survey on April 16 and claimed that the State Government was planning to seek “perfect statistical data” to establish “Crop Colonies”.
Syed Nizamuddin said a detailed format for the survey comprising about 44 columns collecting details of every farmer has reportedly been prepared by the officials.
“In the name of survey, TRS Government wants to send thousands of Agriculture Extension Officers (AEOs) to all farmers to pressurise or lure them to vote for ruling TRS in local body elections. The Chief Minister doesn’t want to seek farmers’ information, but he want to seek their votes,” he alleged.
The Congress leader pointed out that the information, proposed to be gathered through the Farmers’ Survey, was already available with the government. The survey aims to obtain details like total extent of land, cultivable area, water source, crops under cultivation, agriculture mechanisation, fertilisers usage, crop yield, power supply connections, bank account details, market facilities, etc.,
He said these details were already available with more than four departments including Banks, Energy, Revenue and Agriculture Departments. He said enough data was compiled from 10,823 Revenue Village in 568 mandals by 1,507 teams from 15th September to 31st December, 2017 before implementating Rythu Bandhu scheme.
“If there was no data of farmers, then on what basis the State Government claims to have distributed Passbooks and Cheques to nearly 52.72 lakh farmers who linked their Aadhar Cards under Rythu Bandhu scheme in May 2018? he asked.
He also pointed out that the Agriculture Department comes up with daily report on crop-wise area sown and rainfall in all districts of Telangana. “CM KCR is misleading the farmers in the name of another survey,” he said while alleging that the Chief Minister was actually trying to hide some facts which were revealed in the 10th National Agriculture Census done by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
Nizamuddin said that many shocking revelations were made in the 10th National Agriculture Census report, published on 24th September, 2018. “Contrary to the claims of TRS Government, the overall cropping area in Telangana has decreased.
Compared to 2010-11 (9th Agriculture Census), operational holding for all social groups has reduced by 3.63%. Number of SC and ST farmers and their net crop area has reduced. While SCs operational area has reduced by 9.42%, it has decreased by 3.90% for STs. A fresh survey is apparently aimed at covering up the findings of National Agricultural Census,” he said.
“TRS Govt is habitual of diverting people’s attention in the name of different surveys. But it has never released the outcome of those surveys. The findings of much hyped Intensive Household Survey (IHS) held in August 2014 are still a mystery.
TRS retained power in December 2018 on the promise of waiving off crop loans up to Rs. 1 lakh. Instead of implementing the promise, KCR Government is misleading the farmers in the name of new survey,” Nizamuddin said.
The Congress leader said if the State Government was firm on conducting the survey, then it should also collect details of farmers’ suicides, their reasons and the status of compensation paid to their families as per GO 421. However, he said that the Election Commission should allow the survey only after the completion of MPTC and ZPTC elections.
Hyderabad City Congress Committee (HCCC) Minorities Department Chairman Sameer Waliullah was also present in the press conference. (INN)