Hyderabad, Feb 10 (Reporter) To encourage production of quality seeds and prevent spurious seeds in the state, the Telangana government is planning to come up with a ‘ New Seed policy’, Finance Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu said in the Assembly on Saturday. Presenting the vote-on-account budget 2024-25 in the house , Bhatti said during the previous TRS regime, there was a serious problem of spurious seeds and low quality seeds. This pushed several farmers into financial distress and some of them even committed suicides. Telangana state had the potential to become the seed capital of the country, however it could not do so, the FM said. Allocating Rs 19,746 crore in this budget, he said the government would take stern measures against spurious and low-quality seeds and will not spare any trader who indulges in supplying spurious seeds, he warned. Referring to Rythu Bandhu scheme which was introduced by the previous TRS government to provide investment/input assistance to the farmers, Vikramarka said the biggest beneficiaries under this scheme were landlords owning huge tracts of lands but who never cultivated them and also real estate dealers holding thousands of acres. Realizing this, the government decided to review the scheme and implement ‘ Rythu Bharosa’ to the actually eligible beneficiaries @ Rs 15,000 per acre, he said that we also promised to include the tenant farmers who were left in the lurch by the previous TRS government. Keeping the welfare of the farmer in mind, we promised in our election manifesto to implement loan waiver for farmers up to Rs 2 lakh, Bhatti said that we are in the process of preparing the necessary guidelines to implement this. This is a testimony of our commitment towards the welfare of the farmer much in contrast to the previous government, he claimed. We will implement the Crop Insurance scheme based on the PM Fasal Bima Yojana and the government is studying various schemes being implemented in other states , based on which we will prepare and implement the model best suited to state conditions, the Minister added...////...