PK slams agriculture dept, AP govt for failing to help farmers

Vijayawada: Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan on Thursday slammed the Andhra Pradesh government’s agriculture department and its allied ones for failing to aid rain-hit farmers who are staring at severe crop loss.

After interacting with affected farmers in Rajamahendravaram on Thursday, he told mediapersons that middlemen were meddling with procurement, while rice millers were imposing cuts on paddy payments even as the government had directed them to pay the minimum support price.

Pawan Kalyan said that some rice millers were not accepting paddy transported on bullock carts, citing difficulty in weighing it, instead directing the farmers to go to distant rice mills, which is hindering farmers over transportation and loading.

He blamed the officials of the agriculture department, ministers and the legislators as they were unprepared to come to the rescue of the farmers by initiating necessary measures even when it was apparent that untimely rains would damage crops.

The Jana Sena chief then turned critical of the state government for its apparent failure in initiating works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA), even as farmers were in desperate need of labour to harvest crops.

Highlighting alleged failures in the drainage system due to lack of maintenance, he blamed the YSRC government for ruining the farm sector in the erstwhile Godavari districts that were considered the ‘rice bowl’ of the state.

Pawan Kalyan said that it was disheartening to see that the ruling party was not taking much care even as the harvested paddy was germinating due to being drenched in untimely rains.