AIKS flays BJP-TDP’s ‘anti-farmer’ policies

Vijayawada: The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) vice-president, Ravvula Venkaiah, came down heavily on the BJP-TDP regime for adopting anti-farmer policies, which are ruining the agriculture and also a reason for the rise in suicide of farmers.

Addressing a press conference at Dasari Nagabhushan Rao Bhavan here on Tuesday, Venkaiah said that about 60 per cent farmers were dependent on National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to survive. The Central Government, which claims of farmers’ welfare, was not formulating any guidelines to implement the Act seriously to protect the livelihood of the farmers. The Centre was keen on benefiting the corporate firms through acquiring fertile lands and throwing away the agriculture into crisis, he alleged.

The AIKS vice-president also recalled the promise made by the Union government that the Polavaram project will be completed by 2019 and questioned how Rs 100 crore released by Modi-led government in the current fiscal will help in expediting the project. “If they keep releasing Rs 100 crore every year, the project won’t be completed even in 100 years,” he said.

Listing out the resolutions passed in the 17th State convention of AP Ryhtu Sangham held at Guntur from February 20 to 22, he said that convention demanded that the government amend the Land Licensed Cultivators Act, 2011, and issue identity cards for the tenant farmers. Crop insurance should be provided for the farmers in drought areas and strongly objected the State Government’s idea of acquiring 10 lakh acres of fertile land forcibly in the name of Land Bank policy across the State, he said.

C Ramachandraiah and KVV Prasad were elected as the State president and secretary of the AP Rythu Sangham unit, he added.