Bonus of Rs 500 per quintal paddy demanded

Denduluru:  The CPM has demanded that the state government announce Rs 500 bonus on quintal of paddy as the support price announced by the Centre was not adequate owing to increased expenditure on paddy cultivation.

The party upland district secretary, Ch Baburao and other leaders examined the paddy in the fields at Kovvali. They interacted with farmers and tenant farmers on the paddy purchase. Later, they visited paddy purchase centre at cooperative society office.

Speaking on the occasion, Baburao said that the support price of Rs 1,770 for A grade paddy and Rs 1,750 per common variety per quintal was not sufficient. The same price was not offered to the farmers, he complained. 

While the neighbouring Kerala government announced Rs 800 bonus to each quintal of paddy purchased by the government, the state government here was not offering any bonus, he criticised.

He ridiculed Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for making tall claims on farmers’ welfare. The farmer was spending about Rs 25,000 for paddy cultivation per acre of land and the tenant farmer was spending about 40,000.