VIJAYAWADA: TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh has urged Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to take steps to prevent farmers from declaring 'Aqua Holiday' this year. In a letter addressed to the Chief Minister on Thursday, Lokesh said one sector after the other, including aquaculture, was facing crisis ever since the YSR Congress came to power.
The sand policy had badly affected the construction sector and over 130 allied sectors related to it were hit. With the steep rise in prices of farm inputs, the cost of cultivation had gone up. Lack of remunerative prices for agricultural produce had forced some farmers to declare a 'Crop Holiday', he said.
Lokesh said aqua farmers had decided to observe 'Aqua Holiday' unable to face severe losses. The hike in electricity charges and the rise in prices of aqua feed and decline in rates of prawn had dealt a severe blow to aquaculturists.
Finding fault with the Jagan government for not responding to the aqua farmers' decision to go on 'Aqua Holiday' even now, he pointed out that after promising a great deal to aqua farmers, Jagan did nothing for them expect bringing the feed-seed Act that caused huge losses to farmers, he alleged.
Recalling that the previous TDP regime took steps to bring double digit growth in the aqua sector, he said the Chandrababu Naidu government provided subsidy and free transformers to farmers. But the YSRC regime had cancelled all subsidies, which led to the aqua sector crisis, he deplored.