YSRCP president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy addressing a public meeting in Paddapuram

Farmers are a harassed lot under TDP rule, says the YSRCP president

Quoting farmers, YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday alleged that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was using the Polavaram project as a milch cow.

Addressing a public meeting at Peddapuram in East Godavari district as part of his Praja Sankalpa Yatra, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said that Mr. Naidu had become very unpopular among the farmers, who accused him of large-scale corruption in the project implementation.

He said, according to the farmers, the Chief Minister had been visiting the project site every week to “share the booty” with the contractors, one of whom was a relative of Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu.

He alleged that the project was deliberately being delayed to enable Mr. Naidu to make maximum amount of money from it.

Reminding that Peddapuram was the hometown of Deputy Chief Minister N. Chinarajappa, he said people here had not forgotten the six recent murders.

He said Mr. Naidu claimed that 56 % of the project works had been completed, but 80 % of the completed works were related to right and left canals, which were undertaken during the rule of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

He said farmers in TDP rule were a harassed lot as they were denied remunerative price for their produce. Paddy farmers did not get a support price of even ?1,130 per quintal in the market against the stipulated ?1,550, and similar was the case with sugarcane, apple, and jaggery.