The former chief minister and TDP supremo, Nara Chandrababu Naidu, on Friday said that the farmers in the State have suffered heavily due to human error coupled with natural disaster.
After visiting the damaged crop in the Michaung cyclone affected areas like Revendrapadu and Nandivelugu in the combined Guntur district, Chandrababu regretted that majority of the farmers in the State did not cultivate any crops due to severe drought condition while those who raised crops suffered damage due to this Michaung cyclone. Majority of those whose crops got damaged due to the cyclone are tenant farmers who have spent nearly Rs 40,000 per acre including Rs 20,000 as lease, he said.
Natural disasters are quite common but in the damage caused by the Michaung cyclone there is human blunder too, Chandrababu felt and said that despite enough warning on the cyclone the State Government has not taken any preventive measures to check the damage. “Not even gunny bags are supplied to the farmers and even a single rupee was spent in the past four years on drainage repairs due to which the standing crops got damaged with the heavy flow of drain water into the fields,” Chandrababu said.
The former chief minister expressed concern that though the entire farming community is suffering a lot, there is no movement of the Government machinery till now. Did even a single farmer get the Fasal Bheema as the insurance facility for Kharif should have been finalised by July 15 itself, he said.
Much before the Opposition parties leaders, the Chief Minister should visit the farmers first to personally know their problems, Chandrababu said and stated that learning about his Fridays’s visit to the cyclone-affected areas, the Chief Minister for namesake went on a tour. While the cyclone crossed the coast near Bapatla, the Chief Minister, Jagan Mohan Reddy, is on a tour to Tirupati, he pointed out.
Stating that the input subsidy per acre was increased to Rs 20,000 from Rs 10,000 during the TDP regime in 2014, Chandrababu said and asked what Jagan has done for the farmers in these five years. Did he pay the input subsidy to the farmers, he questioned.
“I have been sent to jail by foisting a false case though I have not committed any kind of mistake in my 45 years of political life. I really suffered a lt mentally for no fault of mine,” Chandrababu said. Power should not get into one’s mind, he said and advised Mr Jagan to think about what will be his future in the next three months.
What happened to those who acted with highhandedness in Telangana and similar situation will get repeated in the State, Chandrababu Naidu said. Those who are raising their voice on the failures of theGovernment are being harassed by foisting fasle cases, he regretted.
Stating that Andhra Pradesh stood on top in the debts and second in the suicides by tenant farmers, he said, and demanded suitable compensation to the farmers who suffered crop loss in this cyclone. Assuring the farming community that he will stand by them, Chandrababu asked the farmers to fight for justice.
“If the State Government does not respond now wait for three months I will personally take that responsibility to get the compensation to you,” Nara Chandrababu Naidu said and stated that the Chief Minister has no sympathy towards the farming community.