Mangalagiri: TDP flays govt over rising debts of farmers

Mangalagiri: Former TDP MLA Dhulipalla Narendra Kumar on Wednesday slammed the YSRCP Government for making 'false claims' on the farm sector when the national level reports said that 93 per cent farmers' families were stuck in debts in Andhra Pradesh.

Narendra Kumar said that the YSRCP betrayed the farmers at every step in the past two and half years. CM Jagan Reddy promised in his party manifesto to pay Rs 12,500 to every farmer under Rythu Bharosa but he is gave just Rs 7,500 after coming to power. This came to Rs 13,500 along with Rs 6,000 being given by the Central government. The national level programmes and funds were being used for the publicity of the Chief Minister.

Addressing a press conference here, he said that the Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBK) were only set up with the ulterior motive to give total control to the ruling party leaders. The rates of fertiliser are skyrocketing and the DAP are available only in the black market.

Even the seed is not made available at the RBK centres. AP fell far behind Telangana in the purchase of foodgrain. The Telangana government spent Rs 16,700 crore and purchased 1.40 crore metric tonnes during 2020-`21 while AP spent just Rs 6,700 crore.

Narendra Kumar said that the Jagan Reddy government bought just 14.47 lakh metric tonnes grain during the Kharif season of 2019-20 when compared to 38 lakh metric tonnes in Telangana. During the 2020-'21 Kharif season, the AP government bought just 15.04 lakh metric tonnes as against 41.06 lakh metric tonnes in Telangana.

The maize and jowar purchase centres had only helped the YSRCP leaders to fill their pockets. The CM is not ensuring a fair deal to farmers as his party leaders and middle men were causing severe losses. The ruling party is only deriving undue publicity but not taking true care of the farmers' well being.

The TDP leader deplored that not a single farmer got crop insurance money in AP under the Prime Minister Fasal Yojana during 2019-'20. Even the interest concession was not extended to loans below Rs 1 lakh. The farmers are being cheated at every level.

The government also destroyed the dairy farmers and dairy farmers' federations in the name of Amul. The wrong policies are pushing farmers into such a crisis that they would not recover for a long time to come, he added.

The TDP leader recalled how Jagan Reddy told the farmers that they need not pay any money towards crop insurance and that the YCP government would pay the amount if voted to power. However, the Jagan regime did not pay Rs 1,300 crore during 2019-`20, as a result of which not a single farmer in AP got insurance money. The CM made a huge promise about zero interest loans. But now, the banks are collecting the interest from the farmers by mounting pressure.

Narendra Kumar termed it as unfortunate that the AP government is discouraging the Vijaya Dairy brand when Telangana was getting ready to sell these products even in AP. With an ulterior motive, attacks were being made on the Sangam dairy.

The dairies in the State are being destroyed to help Amul. It is condemnable that the government is spending huge public funds to develop buildings, machinery, vehicles and staff for Amul.