Hyderabad, September 13: The TDP chief, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, has alleged that while it was unable to provide fertilizers to the poor farmers, it had given away 6,500 metric tons of urea to Mr Ravindranath Reddy, Mayor of Kadapa and brother-in-law of late chief minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.
Talking to the media here on Sunday, the former Chief Minister said that he would stage a dharna at the district collectorate to protest against the supply of urea to the Congress leader.
Mr. Naidu has said that the government which was not in a position to supply fertilizers to the farmers had no right to rule the State. Mr. Naidu said that he would be going to Mahbubnagar on Monday to meet the farmers and know about their problems in general and the shortage of fertilizers in particular.
Mr Naidu said that while fertilizers were earlier distributed through the cooperative societies and the MARKFED, the Congress government had totally dispensed with the system and gave the entire distribution to private businessmen. He has alleged that the Congress leaders were minting money through blackmarketing of fertilizers.
Alleging that the government was not bothering to solve the problem though the farmers had taken to streets, he said it was strange that the Agriculture Minister, Mr N. Raghuveera Reddy, was stating that there was no shortage of fertilizers in the State. If there was no shortage, why were the farmers agitating, he questioned. Mr Naidu has alleged that the government instead of providing fertilizers to the farmers, was registering cases against the farmers and locking them up in jails just for asking fertilizers.
The former chief minister will leave Hyderabad for Mahbubnagar on Monday morning and addresses a farmers’ meeting in Kosgi at 11 am. He will also hold a meeting with the farmers in the afternoon in Maddur at 12 noon and would participate in a dharna at Mahbubnagar Collectorate at 1 pm.
——–NSS