Rajahmundry: YSR Congress president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy criticised Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for failing to visit the rain battered villages to know the extent of loss or damage to crops, especially paddy, and demanded adequate relief to the affected farmers.
The YSRC chief visited several affected areas in Kothapeta and Tanuku mandals in Godavari districts on Friday and interacted with the farmers to learn about the extent of crop damage and loss.
Later, he turned critical against the TD government and said that though the farmers incurred heavy crop damage due to the untimely rainfall, the Chief Minister failed to give an assurance to come to their rescue so far.
Referring to the extent of crop loss/damage, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy said crop was damaged in about 1.5 lakh acres that in East Godavari while in West Godavari the crop damage was in about 2.5 lakh acres. He wondered as to why the government failed to come up with estimates of crop loss or damage so far.
The YSR Congress chief demanded that the state government purchase the discoloured paddy by offering remunerative price to the farmers and asked for issue of an order accordingly.
Learning that the government had not released relief to the previous damage to the crop due to a series of cylonic storms earlier, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy asked as to when the government could provide relief to the affected farmers.
He said, “We will mount pressure upon the state government to purchase soaked and discoloured paddy from the farmers and provide relief to the affected farmers.”
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