Naidu demands relief for farmers

The Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu, who arrived here late on Sunday night after visiting cyclone-hit areas in Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts, went round the most affected villages in Visakhapatnam district on Monday, including those in Kondakarla, Munagapaka, Haripalem, Jagannadhapuram, Timmarajupet and Avakhandam mandals, where paddy and sugarcane crops have suffered extensive damage.

While speaking to farmers who had lost their crops at Munagapaka, Naidu decried that no political leader of the ruling party was interested in visiting the affected villages to understand their pathetic position. He charged Congress MPs with dancing to the tunes of the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi as her “pet dogs”, while the latter was busy in the process of bifurcating the State only to make her son the Prime Minister of India.

Besides, the president of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti K Chandrasekhar Rao, president of Y S R Congress Party Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana and the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy were playing political gimmicks with the support of Sonia, he alleged. “When Jaganmohan Reddy was shown as A-1 (accused) in seven charge-sheets filed by the CBI and Minister Mopidevi was shown as A-1 in only two charge-sheets, how come Jaganmohan Reddy had obtained bail, he sought to know.

Lashing out at Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Naidu said that while farmers had incurred heavy losses due to rains, Kiran Kumar Reddy was simply spending his time in AC chambers, instead of visiting flood-affected mandals in north coastal Andhra. During the recent NGOs’ meeting held in Hyderabad, K C R had asked his followers to pelt stones on buses carrying the NGOs, but kept silent when Jaganmohan Reddy convened Samaikya Sankharavam. All this was due to a secret understanding between the two, he alleged.

The UPA Government had extended all help by providing 18 trains for Jaganmohan Reddy’s meeting at a time when the Railways had cancelled most of the trains due to heavy rains. This indicated a nexus between the Congress and the YSR Congress Party. Naidu demanded the Government to provide Rs 25,000 per hectare as relief to farmers who had lost their crops and write off all bank loans, including those provided by co-operative banks.

Mere distribution of 10 kgs rice would not serve the purpose, the TDP president pointed out. The Odisha Government had distributed 50 kg rice and provisions to the rain-affected. He asserted that the TDP would fight with the government till justice was done to farmers.