Amaravati: Assuring that the government will take care of the farmers who lost their crops in the Gulab Cyclone, Minister for Agriculture Kurasala Kannababu said that officials have been appointed to assess the crop damage and slammed the opposition TDP leaders over false allegations against the government on ignoring farmer fraternity.
Addressing a press conference , the minister said that as per the preliminary estimates, almost 1.56 lakh acres of crop loss had occurred due to Gulab Cyclone especially in both Godavari and Krishna districts. He stated that the officials have been appointed to oversee the final enumeration and the district collectors have been directed to hold Agri-Advisory Committee meetings to discuss the crop loss. As instructed by the Chief Minister, all the required measures will be taken to rescue the farmers.
While the government is working hard in these critical situations, he slammed the opposition leaders for creating panic among farmers by taking up a malicious campaign against the government. The minister said that no one can ever beat Chandrababu Naidu in diversion politics, who indeed is trying to distort the fact that Rayalaseema districts are coming out of drought conditions. He reminded that farmers have been abandoned by TDP rulers during their regime, but the same rulers are shedding crocodile tears. Unlike the previous government, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had always supported the farmers, introduced market stabilisation fund, and stood by them right from seed to sale.
Drawing comparison, he said that the TDP government had procured only 11.22 lakh Mt of crops in five years at a cost of Rs 3921 crore, but the current government had spent Rs 6454 crore to procure 19.39 lakh Mt crops in the last two years. The growth rate in agri and allied sectors in the last decade was registered at 37.27 percent. In Agriculture alone it declined from 8.31 percent to 4.75 percent during TDP rule, but it was increased to 5.52 percent under the leadership of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. Similarly, the growth rate in livestock and fisheries was recorded at 8.84 percent and 4.66 percent in the five years of TDP rule, against 12.51 percent and 8.59 percent in the current government.
Further, the minister said that during 2014-15, GSDP in agriculture was only Rs 78898 crore, while in 2020-21, it increased to 14,0087 crore. The overall GSDP with agri and allied sectors was Rs 1.48 lakh crore during 2014-15, it increased to Rs 3.36 lakh crore in 2020-21. He said that the previous government had made poor allocations to agriculture by not exceeding Rs 19,070 crore, but the State government had allocated Rs 31,856 crore during 2021-22. He said that the Chief Minister has been providing input subsidies for the crop loss in the same season.
Meanwhile responding to the Jana Sena Chief Pawan Kalyan’s remarks, Minister Kannababu said that Pawan hadn’t yet digested his defeat in 2019 polls, and was unable to go alongside BJP while his heart is still with TDP. He flayed him for making caste politics in a film function and said that the latter was speaking out of frustration, as Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is on the winning spree by delivering good governance.
