Vijayawada: Congress seeks opening of paddy purchase centres

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) demanded immediate opening of paddy purchasing centres throughout the state to procure paddy that has piled up with the farmers.

PCC president Sake Sailajanath in a statement here on Thursday said that the Kharif paddy was still with the farmers in some districts even as rabi season had commenced.

He demanded the immediate purchase of paddy from the farmers in their larger interest.

He said that it was time for rabi harvesting and the farmers should be provided with harvesting machines and the farm labourers should be allowed to work in the fields. The migrant workers who were stranded in some areas should be provided with harvesting work by wages.

He expressed concern over the loss of work to the workers under NREGA in many villages due to the lockdown. He demanded that they should be paid wages in advance and release the back wages also. He said that about eight crore National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme workers were yet to be paid wages.

Daily labourers and workers lost their livelihood and hence they should be given identity cards to make them work in the fields during the rabi season.

Sailajanath said that the horticulture farmers could not sell their produce as there was no marketing and transport facility. The government should provide them transport facility to enable them to sell their produce directly in the market, he said.