Madhu Sharma, Hyderabad
The publicity mania of the Chief Minister, Jagan Mohan Reddy, has reached its peak, and he is spending crores of rupees on advertisements for the media, said the former minister and member of the TDP politburo, Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy, here on Tuesday.
Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy told the media that, juggling figures, Jagan Mohan Reddy claimed to have extended Rs. 1,45,751 crore in financial assistance to the state’s farmers. However, the facts remain, according to Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy.
Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy stated that the Centre has given Rs 13,000 crore under the Prime Minister Kisan Samman Yojana (Rythu Bharosa), Rs 63,000 crore for the purchase of farm products, Rs 32,000 crore for free power supply, and the arrears from the previous government; the total amount is Rs 1,10,000 crore. Finally, Jagan Mohan Reddy explained, he had spent only Rs 35,751 crore.
Of this amount again, there is the Center’s share in micro irrigation, mechanization, and other schemes, Somireddy said. The state government claims that Rs 27,000 crore is paid under Rythu Bharosa, he said, adding that the centre’s share of the Rs 13,500 crore in assistance being extended under this scheme is Rs 6,000 crore, with the state government contributing only Rs. 7,500 crore.
Only on Monday, the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, directly credited Rs 1,000 crore into farmers’ individual accounts with regard to the Rs 2,000 financial assistance scheme, Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy said. Jagan Mohan Reddy is posing as if he is giving the amount on Tuesday, but he only credited the remaining Rs 90 crore, which was held up due to some technical issues on Monday when the Prime Minister credited the amount to the farmers’ accounts.
Observing that the TDP government waived farm loans in three installments totaling Rs 15,000 crore, and that when the TDP government released Rs 3500 crore as the fourth installment, it was Jagan who lodged a complaint with the Election Commission and got the Chief Secretary replaced, he claimed that this was a great injustice to the farming community.
Jagan is paying the amount to the farmers after only purchasing farm products from them, according to Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy, who also stated that the TDP government provided farmers with input subsidies and came to their aid when they were in need. Observing that the state government has raised loans amounting to over Rs 10 lakh crore, the TDP politburo member said that the TDP that is going to come back to power will have to bear this burden.
The Jagan Mohan Reddy government has completely neglected the farming sector, he said, adding that not even 35 percent of the budgetary allocations have been spent on farmers. When the average financial burden on farmers at the national level is Rs 74,500, it is Rs 2,45,000 in Andhra Pradesh. Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy said the state is now second in farmer suicides and demanded a white paper on farm expenditure over the last four years.