Amaravati: Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy says Chandrababu Naidu has no right to speak on farmers welfare

Amaravati: Government adviser (public affairs) Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy said that opposition TDP leaders have no moral right to speak on farmers' issues, as they left dues of Rs 960 crore towards crop procurement.

He said the letter written by TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu about the arrears to farmers is a false propaganda by the TDP leaders. He said that the opposition has been showing false concern on farmers and the agriculture sector, but in reality, the same TDP government had left a dues of Rs 960 crore which has to be paid for crop procurement.

It was Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, who took the initiative of clearing all those arrears left by Chandrababu. He said that Chandrababu should be ashamed for writing a letter saying that the farmers were paid with in 48 hours of procuring the crops in the rule.

Ramakrishna Reddy said that hardly 18 lakh tonne crop was procured during 2014-15 and by the end of TDP term, in 2018-19, 20.5 lakh tonnes of crop was procured at a cost of Rs 4,800 crore and leaving arrears of Rs 1,000 crore.

Under the current government, in 2019-20 nearly 34.74 lakh tonnes of crop was procured by paying Rs 6,331 crore and in 20-21, so far over 25 lakh tonnes was procured by paying Rs 4,728 crore to the farmers and targeted procurement of 45 lakh tonnes this year would be completed, he said adding that it is a clear evidence that YSRCP government is committed to farmers' welfare.

On providing minimum support price (MSP), the YSRCP general secretary said that the main concern behind bringing MSP is to protect farmers from losses by selling their produce at non-profitable price.

It is not mandatory for the farmers to sell their crops to the government, they can sell their crops to whoever is paying higher price and the government job is to oversee that farmers are getting paid enough. He stated that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy included tenant farmers under e-cropping, who were indeed left out during the TDP regime with no support, he said.

In regard to property tax, Ramakrishna Reddy said that TDP is unnecessarily criticising the government with no clear reason except sheer jealousy. Under the FRBM Act, the state is implementing the recommendations of the Central government as per 15th Finance Commission, which is already being implemented in BJP-ruled states.

The additional revenue to the government due to the upgraded property tax policy is only Rs 186 crore, he said and added that none of the property owners is making a fuss, except TDP and BJP leaders. Referring to arrears from the Centre, he said that BJP can take that credit by getting the Centre release Rs 3,300 crore arrears to the state.