Hyderabad, May 20 (PTI) The Telangana government on Monday decided to invite top Congress leader Sonia Gandhi for the state formation day celebrations and to pay a bonus of Rs 500 on MSP to farmers who cultivated fine rice variety of paddy.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the state cabinet, Information and Public Relations Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy said it was the Congress and Sonia Gandhi who gave Telangana 10 years ago as per people's wishes.

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Since Congress came to power for the first time in Telangana after its formation 10 years ago, Sonia Gandhi would be invited to a major event during the celebrations of state formation day (June 2), he said.

Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka moved a resolution in the cabinet meeting in this regard, he said.

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The minister said many of those who played a key role for the formation of Telangana would be felicitated on the occasion.

The cabinet decided to write to the Election Commission seeking its nod to the proposed felicitation (in view of the model conduct for Lok Sabha elections), he said.

He observed that the state government needs about 36 lakh metric tons of rice annually to run the mid-day meal scheme, social welfare hostels and rice for Rs two per kg scheme.

He said the government has decided to provide a bonus of Rs 500 per quintal to farmers who cultivate fine rice variety of paddy from the coming season.

The Agriculture department would issue a media statement on the list of fine rice varieties.

The minister also said the cabinet decided to procure at MSP the paddy which became wet due to unseasonal rains.

The farmers whose paddy got wet need not worry as the state government would purchase their produce, he said.

Noting that approximately 36 lakh metric tons of paddy produced during summer season has been procured so far by the civil supplies department, he said payment was made to the farmers within three days like never before.

The minister said Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy gave directives to the officials to take tough measures to curb the menace of spurious seeds.

Referring to the interim report submitted by the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) on the damage to the barrages of the mega Kaleshwaram project, state IT Minister D Sridhar Babu said the report says that failures in the Medigadda barrage began in 2019 and that some piers suffered damage as corrective action was not taken.

The report says that water should be discharged from the barrage fully and that other piers of the barrage or the barrage itself face danger, he said.

The report also says that they cannot give confidence on the dam's survival even if any repairs are carried out by the state irrigation officials, he said.

The state government would go by the advice of technical experts on the Medigadda, Annaram, Sundilla barrages of the Kaleshwaram project, he said, adding that it (the government) would endeavour to protect farmers' interests.

Srinivas Reddy also said the government would improve the infrastructure and other facilities in schools before schools are reopened on June 12 after summer vacation.

About Rs 600 crore would be spent on schools and that approximately Rs 120 crore advance fund has been made, he said.

Sridhar Babu would head a cabinet sub-committee on the issue, he added.

The cabinet meeting was held today after obtaining the requisite approval from the Election Commission as the model code of conduct for Lok Sabha polls was in force.

The government had proposed to conduct the cabinet meeting on May 18 but it could not be held as the nod from EC was not received then.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)