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Hyderabad: Siddipet Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLA T Harish Rao has accused the Congress government in Telangana of betraying farmers by failing to implement its promised crop insurance scheme.

He criticised Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy for giving more importance to “political optics and pageantry” than to the real concerns of the agricultural sector.

“Despite repeatedly assuring the farmers of a robust crop insurance policy, the Congress government has failed to deliver for four consecutive seasons. Revanth Reddy had promised a strong crop insurance scheme based on the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana,” he said.

Harish Rao pointed out that the scheme was mentioned in the Warangal Farmers’ Declaration, the Congress manifesto, and three budget speeches — including the vote-on-account — yet has seen no implementation. He added that although Rs 1,300 crore was allocated in the 2024–25 budget, no tenders have been invited to date.

“If the government were truly committed to farmers, tenders would have been floated by May or June. But even now, there is no action, only silence,” he said.

The former minister also raised alarm over a widespread urea shortage in the state. “Farmers have been forced to queue for hours in front of cooperative societies, only to return empty-handed. In Adilabad, Nizamabad, Kamareddy, and Kumram Bheem Asifabad district, farmers, including women, are standing in long queues for urea while the government watches silently,” he alleged.

Rao also criticised the government’s focus on non-essential events. “If even a fraction of the energy spent on glamorous events was directed towards ensuring urea supply, farmers would not be suffering like this.”

He warned that continued negligence would lead to political consequences. “The Congress party has turned agriculture into a crisis and left the farmers feeling deceived. If this continues, they will face a strong backlash from the farming community.”

Harish Rao demanded immediate action to implement the crop insurance scheme and resolve the urea shortage.

Notably, it was the BRS government that first discontinued the crop insurance scheme in Kharif 2020, opting out of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana on the grounds that it benefited insurance companies more than farmers.

During the same year, Telangana suffered extensive crop losses due to heavy rains. Although the High Court directed the state to compensate farmers with Rs 188.23 crore, the then BRS government filed an appeal in the Supreme Court instead of paying out, despite having Rs 977 crore in available funds by March 31. This was criticised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rythu Swarajya Vedika (RSV), a farmers’ rights organisation.