Chandrababu Naidu terms CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy 'betrayer of farmers'

Amaravati: TDP national president N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday slammed the YSRCP government for pursuing "anti-farmer" policies for the past one-and-a-half years that eventually led to suicides of over 1,779 farmers in the state.

He said Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy came to power by making tall promises but after winning the elections, he had turned into a 'betrayer of farmers'. Under the YSRCP rule, the suicides of farmers and agriculture labourers went up by 55 per cent.

Addressing a video conference with party coordinators and in-charges for the parliamentary and Assembly constituencies, the TDP chief alleged that the Chief Minister was behaving cruelly towards the Amaravati farmers and labourers who have been agitating in the streets for nearly 400 days. He committed a breach of trust to the capital city farmers and labourers who had given valuable, ancestral lands. Over 30,000 Amaravati families had no choice but to take part in prolonged protests due to lack of income, livelihood and crops, he said.

The TDP chief called for burning of the 'anti-farmer GOs of the Jagan government in the Bhogi bonfires that would be organised as part of the Sankranti celebrations. The farmers should burn all the GOs relating to the fixing of motors on farm pumpsets, Sunna Vaddi scheme, caste-based division of cultivators and diversion of zero budget natural farming funds. This Sankranti should big goodbye to all the problems of the farmers, he added.