Members of the Telugu Desam Party(TDP) on Sunday demanded that the State government provide support for chilli growers who had lost their crops due to incessant rains recently and rampant pest attack that followed the wet spell.
A delegation of farmer leaders, led by the party farmers’ wing’s State president M. Srinivasa Reddy, urged the YSR Congress Party government to provide seeds free of cost to the affected chilli growers and other farmers so that they can raise Bengal gram and other crops during rabi.
Chilli growers in the districts of Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and Kurnool had lost heavily because of pest attacks following the unabated rain, he said and lamented that the agriculture department officials had not even made a visit to the affected farms to study the cause of the pest attack and suggest remedies.
He added that farmers feared raising crops as they repeatedly suffered losses because of excess rainfall during the Jagan Mohan Reddy regime.
Financial aid
Each of the affected farmers should be provided with a financial assistance of ₹50,000 to begin winter crop cultivation to make good the losses, said TDP farmers’ wing Bapatla Lok Sabha unit president K. Venkaiah after giving a patient hearing to a group of farmers in Posapadu village, near Inkollu, in Prakasam district.
‘Govt.’s failure’
Mr. Srinivasa Reddy alleged that the farmers across the State were in dire straits because of the utter failure of the YSRCP government to anticipate the flood flow in major rivers, including Penna, which were in spate.
Sudden release of huge quantity of flood brought misery to the farmers in the State, he said.
Recalling the rain-related incidents of last month, he said that had the water been released from the Annamayya project in time, a disaster could have been averted.
