Lokesh shoots 17 queries to CM YS Jagan on farmers

Vijayawada: TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh on Monday released a 17-point questionnaire, asking Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to respond to the 'deep agriculture crisis and the appalling conditions' of farmers in his 3-year rule.

Lokesh asked why Jagan Mohan Reddy tightened the noose around the necks of farmers by fixing meters on the agriculture motors in the state. The Chief Minister promised to bring a 'Rythu Rajyam' before the 2019 elections but now he was aiming at creating a state that would be devoid of farmers as a whole. He said that under YSRCP's 'atrocious' rule, the farmers were facing a threat to their very existence. The CM was not in a position to tell the people what he had done for meeting the growing irrigation needs of the farmers. "Did his government dig up a single minor canal in the past three years? Can the CM answer this question?"

Condemning the 'anti-farmer policies', Lokesh asked why not even a single minor irrigation project was constructed anywhere in the state. No justice was done to the farmers in any region. Why didn't the government make payments towards paddy purchased from farmers last year? Did the present rulers make any effort to purchase paddy this year so as to ensure a better deal to the farmers, he asked.

The TDP MLC demanded the Chief Minister to clarify what happened to the Rs 3,500 crore price stabilisation fund. Could the Jagan regime use this to ensure remunerative prices to the farmers as there were complaints about the absence of input subsidy to the farmers, he said.

He sought details of compensation paid to the farmers towards crop losses and damages in the cyclones and untimely rains. Why didn't farmers get insurance if the government had paid crop insurance premium, he wondered.

He asked why the Chief Minister was giving just Rs 7,500 Rythu Bharosa contrary to his promise of Rs 12,500. Some of his other questions were: Did this government make any effort to identify the number of tenant farmers in the state? What happened to the agriculture mechanisation, drip irrigation and micro nutrients? Why did this CM give support to the three 'anti-farmer' laws brought by the Centre?

The crop holidays were back and while the TDP government gave Rs 3 lakh on 'Sunna Vaddi', the present government was giving only Rs 1 lakh, he said. The state had occupied third position in farmers suicides in the country and whether this was the target of 'Rythu Rajyam' that Jagan speaks about, he asked.