AP CM cheating farmers: TDP

Hyderabad, May 9 (UNI) Telugu Desam Party spokesperson K Vidhyadhara Rao today contended that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was cheating the farmers of the state by claiming his Government to be ''farmer-friendly.'' The Chief Minister's address to the World Agriculture Forum in St Louis, USA, was lacklustre, he claimed at a press conference here.

He alleged that Dr Reddy had kept quiet even after Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram had turned down the state's request for waiver of loans secured by farmers prior to July 15 last year as part of the Prime Minister's package for suicide-prone districts of the State, adding that rescheduling of farm loans by the centre had in fact turned out a to be curse on farmers struggling to get fresh credit for raising crops.

The Chief Minister had not taken up with the centre the alleged credit squeeze imposed by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development on refinancing of farm loans and as a result, there was no scope for getting fresh crop loans even during the coming Khariff season, Mr Rao claimed.

Disputing the Chief Minister's assertion that the Congress had brought under irrigation 12.50 lakh acres of land, he wanted the state government to come out with a white paper to give details of land brought under irrigation project-wise.

''The Chief Minister, who ''sermonised'' in his speech on transfer of farm technologies from lab to land, had in fact removed 7,000 agricultural extension officers. With an eye on the next elections, the state ministers and ruling Congress legislators had handpicked 50,000 party workers, many of whom are only tenth pass, for appointment as 'progressive farmers,' Mr Rao said.

Referring to micro irrigation, he claimed that though the price of micro irrigation components had been hiked thrice, the unit of micro irrigation system had not been hiked, putting horticulture crop growers to hardship.

UNI