Hyderabad, January 07: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) today flayed the Congress government for its ”nonchalant” attitude towards the problems of farmers in the state.
Addressing a press conference after a politburo meeting chaired by its president N Chandrababu Naidu here, senior TDP leader Yerran Naidu said concerned over the plight of the farmers, Mr Chandrababu Naidu had undertaken ”Rythu Porubata” programme.
He has so far toured 18 districts across the state. The response from the farmers and people everywhere was ‘overwhelming.’ He said despite the state government declaring 867 mandals as ‘drought affected’, it had not taken any steps to mitigate the sufferings of the farmers.
Mr Yerran Naidu alleged that the Kiran Kumar Reddy government had not acted so far on the report sent by the Agriculture Department which highlighted provision of input subsidy to affected farmers at a cost of Rs 1,900 crore.
The TDP leader also alleged that not a single Congress leader consoled the farmers by giving an assurance that the state government would fight with the Centre for getting Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their produce and sarcastically said the Congress leaders were interested only in Cabinet expansion.
The state government had totally failed to conduct review meetings on agriculture, Mr Yerran Naidu said. National Crime Records (NCR) has said Andhra Pradesh was in the lead on the farmers’ suicides compared to other states.
The state government was in ”deep slumber”, he alleged.
–UNI