Ongole: TDP seeks immediate relief to farmers

Ongole : The Prakasam district TDP leaders said that the farmers have put nearly Rs 1 lakh investment per each acre in the district and lost it due to the Nivar cyclone. They demanded that the state government immediately release more than 50 percent of the expenditure as a relief to the farmers and extend help to the farm workers also.

The former minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, Bapatla parliamentary president for TDP, Yeluri Sambasiva Rao, the TDP state secretaries Shaik Karimulla, Dasari Usharani, and others inspected the fields to estimate the damage to the crops in Chinna Nandipadu and other villages in the Parchuru assembly constituency on Sunday. They interacted with the farmers of chilli, tobacco, Bengal gram, and cotton in the area and assured support from the Telugu Desam Party.

Devineni Umamaheswara Rao alleged that the ministers and MLAs from the ruling party have no time to console the farmers but are busy minting money in sand and rummy clubs. He said that the government lost common sense and forgot to save the farmers from the losses. He said that a tenant farmer, Krishna committed suicide after witnessing his crop submerged in water and it was the result of the negligence of the government.

He demanded the government administration to immediately enumerate the losses and distribute relief to support the farmers. He alleged that the chief minister has failed to do at least one percent of works in Polavaram in the last 18 months but has big plans to erect his father's statues neglecting the development of the state.

Yeluri Sambasiva Rao said that the chief minister is busy making aerial tours but not responding to the plight of the farmers at the ground level. He said that the crops in the Vemuru, Repalle, Chirala, Addanki, Santhanuthalapadu, Bapatla, and Parchuru assembly constituencies are submerged in the flood water leaving the farmers bankrupt.

He demanded the government to announce more than 50 percent of the expenditure as a relief to the farmers and provide seeds and fertilizers for free for the next crop. He said that the farmworkers are also in a depressed state and demanded a special package to them also as a relief.

The Ongole parliamentary constituency TDP leaders Dr Raj Vimal Gurrala, Pathuri Pullaiah, Bandaru Madan and others inspected the damaged crops at Sankuvanikunta and Madanuru villages and interacted with the farmers of paddy, jute, black gram, and banana fields on Sunday.

Raj Vimal flayed that the YSRCP leaders forgot the farmers and didn't care to provide solace to them in the crucial times. He demanded the government to immediately enumerate and distribute relief to the farmers who are grief-stricken and waiting for a helping hand.