AP: Naidu in preventive custody ahead of meeting CM

Telugu Desam Party president and leader of opposition in Andhra Pradesh assembly N Chandrababu Naidu and state Communist Party of India secretary K Narayana were taken into preventive custody on Monday along with several leaders of their parties and farmers organisations when they tried to march towards the secretariat to meet Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on the farmers issue.

Soon after concluding a "maha dharna" protesting the Congress government's indifference to the farmers plight, Chandrababu and Narayana were leading their party workers towards the Secretariat from Indira Park for laying a siege but were blocked by police midway.

The TDP workers tried to protest but the police took Chandrababu and Narayana into custody in the afternoon and drove them away in a police jeep to Banjara Hills police station. Both leaders objected to the police action saying they were going to the secretariat to meet the chief minister and submit a memorandum.

Earlier, the former chief minister launched a scathing attack on the Kiran Kumar Reddy government for leaving the farmers in lurch.

"This government has failed to ensure adequate supply of inputs for launching agricultural operations in the kharif season. Seeds and fertilisers are in short supply. Only about 10 per cent of farmers got crop loans from banks despite tall claims by the government," Chandrababu pointed out.

Licensed cultivators (tenant farmers) too were not getting loans from commercial banks despite the government enacting a legislation. Power supply to agriculture sector was erratic and farmers were not getting seven hour supply as promised by the government, the TDP chief said.

He demanded that the government of India immediately implement the M S Swaminathan Committee recommendations to bail the farm sector out of crisis.