YSR Congress Party President YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has started his two-day “Rythu Deeksha” at Nallapadu in Guntur.
YS Jagan is taking up the Deeksha as a protest against the “anti-farmer” policies of the State government. The state government has failed in waiving the farmers loans, providing minimum support price for chilli and turmeric, and setting up a market stabilization fund, contended Jagan. Jagan alleged that, “The loan waiver scheme, is the Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP) main election promise, in totality.”
The YSRCP Chief will also participate in the May day celebrations in Guntur. Earlier, YSRCP leaders Botcha Satyanarayana and Ambati Rambabu made a visit to the location where the Deeksha is to be held and inspected the arrangements.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy said in Anantapur that the YSR Congress was trying to generate trouble in the State by provoking people on various issues. Addressing the media in Guntur, Minister for Food, Civil Supplies, and Consumer Affairs P. Pulla Rao said that Jagan had no right to start the “deeksha” having tried to obstruct the farm loan waiver scheme and Pattiseema project. The former Chief Minister, late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, was against farm loan waiver and his son would not be supportive of it, added Pulla Rao.
The YSRCP MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy stated that after the TDP came into power in the State, the agriculture sector is facing trouble and the farmers continue to suffer till now. He said that many farmers became debt-ridden and committed suicides. The AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu could provide minimum support price (MSP) to the farmers if he diverts the huge amount spent on his helicopters tours and other unnecessary expenses, claimed Ramakrishna.
The AP state government backed the middlemen and was not supporting the farmers. The YSRCP will intensify the protest against the negligent attitude of the State government towards the farmers issues in the coming days if the TDP government failed to address the farmers issues immediately, said Ramakrishna. During Ex CM YS Rajasekhar Reddy’s regime, the farmers of turmeric got more than Rs 15,000 per quintal but for the last three years, the prices were gradually coming down. Market yard closed for two days, said the YSRC MLA.
The market yard chairman Mannava Subbarao said that they were going to close it for the two days on May 1 and 2. On May 1, the workers would not work on account of the May Day holiday, while on May 2, the Chilli produce would be shifted from the yard, Subbarao added. The committee suggested the farmers not to come to the yard till May 3.
SUPRAJA
