VIJAYAWADA: TDP supremo Nara Chandrababu Naidu on Friday demanded that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy announce how much compensation will be paid to farmers for the crop loss incurred by them due to unseasonal rains and when the farm produce will be procured by the government.
Naidu visited the areas where unseasonal rains damaged the crops and harvested paddy in the Ramachandrapuram Assembly segment in the East Godavari district.
About 40 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been harvested in Rabi and of which a major portion of produce is still in the fields. On crop insurance for farmers, Jagan had misled the Assembly by stating that the premium was already paid without paying it. “When I staged a dharna sitting at the podium in the Assembly, the CM paid the insurance premium overnight. Had he paid the insurance premium, the farmers would have got some relief,” Naidu said.
Observing that the farmers had already suffered during Kharif, he stated that the untimely rains now too severely affected them. Though gunny bags should be supplied from April 1, farmers are yet to get them and till now only 5.75 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been purchased, he pointed out.
“When the cyclone hit the State as the Chief Minister, I stayed in Rajahmundry for 10 days to oversee the relief operations and went back only after I ensured that the relief reached all the affected. Though the farmers are in deep trouble, Jagan has not visited them,” Naidu observed.