TDP threatens to intensify stir

Hyderabad, Sep 30 (UNI) The main Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) today threatened to intensify its stir in support of farmers, demanding adequate supply of fertilizers.

Party spokesman K Sivaprasada Rao, who led an agitation of farmers in his native Guntur district, told newspersons that unscrupulous traders were diverting fertilizer stocks to the black market by colluding with ''corrupt'' officials.

Alleging that the ''so called farmer-friendly Rajasekhara Reddy Government was indifferent to the plight of the farmers due to acute shortage of fertilizers'', he said the party would have no option but to raid private godowns and distribute fertilizers free of cost to farmers, if the Congress government failed to act in time against those hoarding fertilizer stocks.

Instead of fulfilling the demand for fertilizers for Khariff crop, the Congress government was stocking them for the next Rabi season allegedly to get political mileage in the 2009 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the state, he contended.

He alleged that the government had failed to provide Minimum Support Price for various crops, including plantations.

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