The Congress party has taken a serious exception to the decision to fix power meters to the agricultural connections and flayed the State government for “directly harming the farming community”.
Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee working president N. Thulasi Reddy on Monday submitted a representation to the Kadapa district Collector, Ch. Hari Kiran, appealing for withdrawal of G.O. No.22 issued to this effect. He said that ‘free power’ was the brainchild of the Congress government of 2004 when its Chief Minister the late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy affixed his first signature on the file after coming to power. Any form of tampering with this scheme would deal a severe blow to farmers and sound the death knell to the rural economy, he cautioned.
While the TDP heckled at the scheme and called it impossible, the present YSRCP regime was bent on undoing it, causing more harm than expected, Mr. Thulasi Reddy observed. “Fixing a meter to an agricultural connection is similar to tightening the noose around a farmer’s neck,” he warned, recalling the idiom that a nation-State would be doomed if its farmers shed tears.
Protest
Meanwhile, the party workers led by State general secretary Doddareddy Rambhupal Reddy staged a demonstration at the Tirupati Sub-Collector’s office and submitted a representation to the State government to withdraw the move. “The government has reduced allocations to agriculture and irrigation sectors and fixed a mere ₹5,000 as ‘Rythu Bharosa’ after undoing the farm loan waiver scheme,” he said.
He opined that farmers strongly believed that the government was going back on its words and moving towards harming their interests.
