On Thursday, IT Minister KT Rama Rao criticized the BJP-led union government for trying to privatize both the agriculture and power sectors, saying it would severely debilitate farmers and have far-reaching effects.
Agricultural and power sectors are being handed over to corporate companies by the Centre. A number of times earlier, K Chandrashekhar Rao warned against such a move, and now his words are coming true, the Minister said.
On Thursday, Rama Rao told reporters in Sircilla that the union government was intent on selling off all public sector undertakings, including crop procurement. There will be a huge hit on farmers’ incomes if private companies enter the market.
According to the Food Security Act, the union government must purchase every grain produced by farmers. According to him, the Centre was evading its responsibility and was now planning to privatize the power sector as well, and he pointed out the Chief Minister’s firm opposition to such reforms in agriculture and power, and recalled the State government’s objections to the Power Bill in the Assembly.
Asserting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought anti-farmer laws without knowing the ground reality, resulting in 700 farmers’ deaths, the Minister said the union government was trying to weaken agriculture and power through its ‘inefficient and blunt’ decisions.
India was already ranked worse than Nigeria in terms of poverty ratio due to the inefficiency of the Centre under the Modi regime. In the Hunger Index, India was also behind Bangladesh and Pakistan, he added.
Rama Rao said Telangana would be severely adversely affected by the electricity reforms. In addition to providing free power to the agriculture sector, the subsidy provided to SC, ST, washermen, weavers, Nayi Brahmana (salons) communities, and a few industries would have to be revoked.
According to him, the union government also conspired to weaken Telangana’s power units by creating hurdles in loan approvals.
Under the new Electricity Bill, he warned that pre-paid meters would require people to pay in advance, and that electricity prices would be revised regularly, similarly to fuel prices.
Putting aside differences for the sake of the State, the Minister appealed to all political parties to understand the conspiracy of the Centre.
(This story has been sourced from a third-party syndicated feed, agencies. Raavi Media accepts no responsibility or liability for the text’s dependability, trustworthiness, reliability, and data. Raavi Media management/ythisnews.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content at its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever.)
