Farmers should be united to address their problems: KCR

Ruling BRS president and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday said farmers need to be united so as to address their problems, including absence of irrigation facilities and investment support.

The BRS is going ahead with the slogan of 'ab ki baar kisaan sarkar' (farmers' government this time) to ensure facilities like supply of electricity, water for irrigation and investment support to farmers, he said, speaking at an event here where farmers' leaders from Maharashtra joined the BRS.

He said the power of vote should be utilised to usher in a "farmers' rule".

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Observing that agitations by farmers have been going on in the country since the pre-Independence era, he said farmers had recently agitated against the three farm laws (since repealed) in Delhi.

The farmers had put up a spirited fight against the farm laws though the Centre had called them "naxalites" and others, he said.

The government had to finally climb down and Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) had to seek apology and withdraw the farm laws, he claimed.

The farm laws would not have been withdrawn except for the Uttar Pradesh and Punjab elections, he claimed.

Telangana had faced farmers' suicides and other problems before it became a state, a release quoted him as saying. The farmers' suicides have now almost come to an end after the formation of the state.

While paddy is cultivated in 94 lakh acres in the country, 56 lakh acres is cultivated in Telangana itself, he said.

He also said water bodies in Telangana have abundant water even in the current summer month of March-end and April.