How many farmers doubled their income, KTR asks Modi

HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Working President and Minister Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao, who is known for his sharp, incisive tweets especially directed against the Centre, fired one more salvo on Saturday.

He taunted the Narendra Modi government for its tall claims that farmers' income had doubled following the Prime Minister's initiative. In a veiled retort, KTR asked the Prime Minister's Office to clarify to the country as to how many farmers in the country have doubled their income. He also wanted to know the states where these farmers hailed from and what was the key initiative of the Central government that made this "achievement" possible.

KTR's poser was in response to a tweet posted by the earlier. The tweet read: "In response to the PM's clarion call for doubling the farmers' income, the income of very large number of farmers has more than doubled." Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar was one of those tagged in the tweet.

Surprisingly, the tweet gives away no further details like what was the doubled income and how it was accomplished.

KTR quickly lapped it up questioning its credibility and asked the PMO to divulge the details pertaining to the claim if it was indeed true.

He tweeted: "If the claim of the Agriculture Dept is true, I request the Hon'ble @PMOIndia to furnish the details to the people of this country

1) How many millions of farmers doubled their income?

2) Which state are these farmers from?

3) Which initiative of Govt was key to achieve this? "

KTR's counter assumes significance and comes with a strong sense of seriousness attached to it particularly in the wake of last year's farmers' protests and the prevailing criticism that the Modi government hasn't been proactive on the promise of doubling farmers' income.

The Union government's Doubling Farmers' Income Committee report has the benchmark clearly set for this purpose. According to it, the household income of 2015-16 was Rs 8,059 per month. The promise is about doubling it in real terms, taking inflation into account. At this rate, the target income by 2022 is Rs 21,146 per month.

One is not sure if the PMO will take the bait from KTR and reveal more information on the subject but the TRS working president's tweet quickly caught the attention of his followers. The tweet garnered more than 1,000 likes within two hours of posting it.