AP CM Reddy refutes Naidu's charges

The issue of compensation for the calamity-hit farmers of Andhra Pradesh has become a contentious subject with the leader of opposition N Chandrababu Naidu and the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy continuing their war of words.

Naidu, who is continuing his fast unto death on the fourth day, demanding liberal compensation to the farmers has written an open letter to the farmers charging the government with complete failure in getting assistance from the central government.

Kiran Kumar Reddy on the other reiterating his commitment to help the farmers said, "in spite of financial constraint, the government has announced the best possible package for the farmers affected by the recent heavy rains".

Naidu, who was forcibly shifted to Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences by the police has refused to break his indefinite fast, saying that the state government had become so helpless that while had sought an assistance of Rs 8036 crore from the state after the Jal cyclone had hit the state, it received only Rs 81 crore from the Centre. "But there is nobody in the state to question the Centre", he said.

Coming to the issue on the hand, Naidu said that as the leader of opposition he had demanded a compensation of Rs 10,000 per acre for the paddy and Rs 15,000 for the commercial crops to help the farmers who were hit by the recent rains but the state government was trying to use the police to suppress this struggle.

Naidu also charged the Congress government with trying to cheat the farmers through various means. He pointed out that after 2009 floods, the prime minister had announced immediate assistance of Rs 1000 crore to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh each. "But AP got only Rs 685 crore and Karnataka got Rs 1600 crore assistance from the center", he said in his open letter.

Similarly he said that the Congress government in the state spent Rs 2637 crore on agriculture in the pre-election year of 2008-09 but it came down to Rs 855 crore after elections in 2009-10.

On the other hand, Naidu claimed that his government had got 55 lakh metric tons of rice worth Rs 10,500 crore from the Center during 1999-2004 to help the people in the times of drought.

Naidu vowed that he will continue his indefinite hunger strike till the affected farmers get the due assistance from the government.

Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy reviewed the situation of paddy procurement at a high level meeting.

Reddy said that government had already notified 483 mandals as affected by the recent rains and floods and the number was likely to increase further. The government has decided to waive interest rate on kharif loans in 2010 to benefit the affected farmers and the input subsidy has been raised from Rs 4,500 to Rs 6,000 per hectare.

He also announced that all these benefits will for the first time go to the tenant farmers also.

Rejecting the criticism that his government was neglecting the farmers, Kiran Kumar Reddy said that no other government in the state had started so many welfare schemes for the farmers.  A record 27.80 lakh free agricultural connections were given and the total subsidy for free power for farmers works out to Rs.4912 crores per annum. The cumulative subsidy for free connections since 2004-05 was Rs.29,303 crores, he said.

On debt waiver, he said, during the financial year 2008-09, over Rs.11,350 crores were waived benefitting 64 lakhs farmers under the Government of India farm loan waiver scheme. In addition to this, the State Government had spent Rs.1,600 crores benefiting 32 lakhs farmers at Rs 5,000 to each farmer who were not covered under the debt waiver scheme of the central government . The chief minister asked whether any party or government did more than this for the farmers in the country.