Farmers in Telangana have demanded a compensation of up to ₹40,000 an acre due to flood damage.
Stating that crop in 12-lakh acres was damaged in the unprecedented rains and floods, the Telangana Rythu Sangham has demanded a compensation of ₹20,000 an acre in case of food grains and ₹40,000 an acre in case of commercial crops.
“Farmers have sown different crops in 64 lakh acres so far. Of this, crops in 12 lakh acres have been damaged severely. This includes 7 lakh acres of cotton crop,” Potineni Sudarshan Rao, President of the association, has said.
He said the cotton farmers invested about ₹8,000 an acre at the time of sowing. “They need to reinvest as much to salvage the season. We demand immediate relief,” he said.
Meanwhile, the State government has written a letter to the Centre, appealing for an immediate financial assistance of ₹1,000 crore to take up relief measures.
Stating that the heavy rains and floods had caused damages to the tune of ₹1,400 crore, the government said the Roads and Buildings Department suffered a loss of ₹498 crore, Panchayat Raj Department about ₹450 crore and Municipal Administration reported a loss of ₹380 crore.
Farmers’ appeal
The farmers’ association asked the State government to seek a visit by a Central team to assess the loss. “We appeal to the government to immediately make seeds, fertilisers and pesticides available to farmers and help them go for a second sowing,” Telangana Rythu Sangham General Secretary T Saggar said.