NITI Aayog: Prioritise Agriculture Says KCR

New Delhi: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) suggested that there is a need to focus on boosting the agricultural sector, in the fourth meeting of the NITI Aayog Governing Council, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Sunday. Speaking on the ocassion, KCR mentioned seven welfare schemes taken up by the Telangana government like the Rythu Bandhu scheme, irrigation projects, land records updation exercise etc.

KCR said that the Rythu Bandhu scheme, through which the lives of more than 98 per cent small and marginal farmers of the state had been transformed, provides Rs 4,000 per acre per crop as agriculture input insistence. The Telangana CM also explained the yet-to-be-launched 'Rythu Beema Yojana', which insures each farmer for Rs 5 lakh with the state government paying the premium cost of Rs 1,000 per annum. A total of 50 lakh farmers will be benefitted by this scheme, he added.

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Further focus on agriculture and allied activities (dairy, poultry, goat and sheep rearing, and fisheries) as an integrated sector is necessary and these sectors must be exempted from income tax, he remarked. Mega irrigation projects like Kaleshwaram and Palamuru-Ranga Reddy, after completion, will reshape the growth trajectory of Telangana, KCR said. In the past three years, the Telangana government had built 356 agricultural godowns, adding an additional storage capacity of 18.30 lakh MTs, at a cost of Rs 1,050 crore, in addition to the already existing 170 godowns.

All Chief Ministers of states, Governors and central ministers attended the meeting, except Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is on a hunger strike from the past one week.