Former chief minister and TDP supremo, N Chandrababu Naidu, on Friday demanded that Chief Minister, Jagan Mohan Reddy, announce how much compensation will be paid for the farmers for crop damage in the untimely rains and when the farm products will be purchased by the Government.
Chandrababu Naidu visited the areas where the paddy is being arid that got totally moisturised in the recent heavy rains in Ramachandrapuram Assembly segment in East Godavari district. The paddy farmers were serious about the negligence being adopted by the State Government in coming to their rescue.
Asking Jagan to come out openly on the decision on the crop damage in the recent untimely rains, Chandrababu said that 40 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been harvested in Rabi of which major portion is still in the fields.
Pointing out that the earlier State governments were paying crop insurance, he said that when Jagan, without paying the insurance premium to the organisation, had misled the Assembly that he had already paid the premium.
“When I staged a dharna sitting at the podium inside the Assembly, he paid the premium overnight. Had he paid the insurance premium, the farmers would have got some relief,” Chandrababu said. Observing that the farmers had already suffered during Kharif, he stated that the untimely rains now too caused serious damage to them.
The State stood in the second position in the country in suicides of tenant farmers, the TDP president said, adding that of the tenant farmers majority belong to SC, ST and BC communities. “The situation has come to such a pass that the padd farmers have to hang themselves,” Chandrababu regretted.
Though gunny bags should be distributed from April 1 they have not been supplied yet, he said and stated that till now only 5.75 metric tonnes of paddy has been purchased.
“When the Hurricane cyclone hit the State, as the chief minister of the State I stayed in Rajahmundry for 10 days to oversee the relief operations and went back only after I ensured that the relief reached the flood-hit. Today the farmer is in deep trouble but Mr Jagan is not coming out of Tadepalli palace,” the former chief minister remarked.
