In a strong retort to the Opposition criticism on the alleged lack of support to the farming community in Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has said his government has spent Rs. 1.28 lakh crore on various subsidies and schemes for farmers in three years.
Bordering on an election speech, he spoke about the revolution being brought in for quality education, giving a competition to private dairies by bringing in Amul to enhance milk procurement price, and the alleged instigation by opposition parties to oppose naming Konaseema district after Dr.B.R. Ambedkar. Laughing away the theory of ‘Crop Holiday’ in Konaseema, allegedly being propagated by the TDP and the media houses supporting the TDP with ‘vested-interest’, the Chief Minister said there was no such proposal anywhere.
Giving a strong and detailed reply to the opposition parties’ demand for a White Paper on what the YSRCP government had done for farmers in three years, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy repeatedly, in his 20-minute speech at the public meeting here on the occasion of disbursing Rs.29,77.82 crore compensation under the YSR Free Crop Insurance Scheme to 15,60,703 farmers Statewide, said, “mark the change,” to highlight the difference between the five-year regime of the TDP and the three years of the YSRCP rule so far.
Under the Rythu Bharosa Rs.23,875 crore was given to farmers before the start of every crop season, he said and added that he believed in working for farmers transparently, which the people needed to notice.
Flays Pawan
In a well-attended public meeting, where the cameramen and videographers of media organisations were not allowed, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy challenged the Jana Sena Party founder Pawan Kalyan, whom he addressed as the ‘adopted son of Nara Chandrababu Naidu’, to prove if at least one farmer, who had committed suicide and possessed either a pattadar passbook or the CCRC Card, was not paid Rs.7 lakh. “The Datta Putrudu failed to prove it despite my challenge before he embarked on a journey in Anantapur and East Godavari to visit the farmers’ families,” Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said. Mr. Pawan Kalyan forgot to fight for the 458 farmers who had committed suicide for whom the TDP had failed to pay the compensation during 2014-2019, he added.
For paddy purchase, the YSRCP spent close to Rs.45,000 crore in three years compared to just Rs.30,000 crore in five years of the TDP rule, in addition to paying Rs.8750 crore of power dues of the previous TDP regime, while providing nine-hour power for agriculture during day time at a cost of Rs.25,800 crore, he said.
In addition to crop insurance, the government provided Rs.1,613 crore in three years as input subsidy before the end of the season in which farmers had lost their crop and spent Rs.1283 crore towards Sunna Vaddi scheme (compared to Rs.782 crore by the TDP in five years), Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said.
