Rajahmundry: Castigating the Congress government led by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy for ignoring the plight of the farmers and the people as they are facing hardships due to a series of cyclonic storms, Telugu Desam supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu demanded the government to enhance input subsidy for the benefit of the farmers and provide compensation for those who lost their properties.
The TD chief visited several storm-affected areas in Amalapuram division in East Godavari on Monday. He interacted with the farmers in the affected villages and shared their grief and assured efforts with the government to provide relief to them. He demanded the state government to enhance the input subsidy to Rs 10,000 per acre for paddy.
At present the same amount is being provided per hectare. He sought compensation worth Rs 5 lakh to the kin of the deceased in the storm and supply of 50 kgs of rice, five litres of kerosene to the affected families and also Rs 10,000 as compensation for total loss of houses and Rs 5,000 for partially damaged houses.
He flayed the Chief Minister for being preoccupied with Rachchabanda phase-III programme without coming to the rescue of the people who were affected in the storm. Maintaining that the farmers were the worst affected in the Congress government, he said, “I am committed to my statement that farming should be made a profitable venture and as soon as our party assumes power, I will append my first signature on the file related to waiver of farm loans for the benefit of the farmers.”
He visited fields in affected areas like Vagurthivaripalem, Mukkamala, Irusumanda, Cheyyeru, Gannepalli and several other villages in Amalapuram division. Turning his attention on politics and the ongoing turmoil on proposed bifurcation of the state, the TD chief Naidu reiterated the party’s stand by saying that they wanted the Centre to go ahead with the bifurcation of the state only after addressing the concerns of people from both the regions.
He was critical against Congress president Sonia Gandhi for going ahead with the decision on T and made it clear that the issue was no longer affair of the Congress.
He blamed the Union ministers and Congress MPs from Seemandhra region for failing to make their stand clear on the issue and expressing divergent views on the status of Hyderabad.
