Whole Navyandhra facing agri crisis and ryots suicides: Ex MLA
YCP Govt not providing compensation to damaged crops
AMARAVATI: TDP former MLA Dhulipalla Narendra Kumar on Friday urged Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy to initiate immediate measures for ensuring remunerative prices for farmers’ crops so as to rescue them farmers from debts and resolve the crisis in agriculture.
In an open letter to the Chief Minister here, Narendra Kumar said that all the 13 districts in ‘Navyandhra Pradesh’ (newly created AP) were facing problems but the Government was giving wrong figures to ignore the crisis situation. The farmers were declaring crop holidays in Coastal Andhra while onion and tomato farmers suffered heavy losses in Rayalaseema. Only in Anantapur, 10 lakh acres of crops were damaged. Farmers’ suicides were on the rise all over. However, the meters were being fixed on agri motors.
The TDP leader posed a series of questions to the CM, asking why the YCP Government had reduced the input subsidy to Rs. 16,000 per hectare to the affected farmers in seven cyclones and untimely rains in the past two and half years. The TDP regime gave Rs. 20,000 during the Titli cyclone. The Government promised to pay crop insurance but did not do so. When the farmers were about to suffer heavy losses, former CM Chandrababu Naidu squatted on the floor in the House. Following this, the Jagan regime issued a midnight GO in a hurried manner.
Narendra Kumar asked whether it was not a betrayal on the part of CM Jagan to give just Rs. 7,500 under Rythu Bharosa. In the YCP plenary in 2017 itself, Jagan Reddy announced that Rs. 13,500 would be given to the farmers over and above the PM Kisan assistance. Each farmer was losing Rs. 6,000 per year and Rs. 30,000 during the five year term. Rythu Bharosa was promised to 64 lakh farmers but now it was being given to just 45 lakh. The CM promised Rythu Bharosa to 15 lakh tenant farmers but now only 49,000 were being covered.
The TDP leader deplored that for the first time, Rythu Bharosa was being denied to the farmers along caste lines. By shedding his sweat and blood, the farmers would grow crops. They should receive their payments within 24 hours of selling their crop. Whereas, they were being forced to wait for months to get the foodgrains dues. The tenant farmers were not in a position to sell their food grain. The ruling YSRCP leaders were interfering and causing severe losses to the farmers at every stage.
Decrying the Government’s ‘indifference’, Narendra Kumar said that the Chandrababu regime gave 90 percent subsidy to drip irrigation in upland areas but not even one percent was given in the past two and half years. The TDP rule gave 90 percent subsidy on zinc and other micronutrients but the Jagan regime did not give even one percent. The TDP rule gave 50 percent subsidy on aerators, motors and bores to aqua farmers. That was not being given under the Jagan rule as a result the aqua farmers too were committing suicides.
The TDP leader slammed the YCP regime for ‘blackmailing’ the farmers by threatening to cancel the Government benefits if they would not sell their milk to Gujarat-based Amul Dairy. The Polavaram dam storage capacity was being reduced from 150 feet to 15 ft only to appease Telangana Chief Minister and to reduce the resettlement package. Was it not a betrayal of the AP farmers by Jagan Reddy? The budget for irrigation projects in all districts was reduced by half when compared with the previous TDP rule. Was it not a failure of the CM to prevent the neighbouring states from constructing illegal projects.
