President of YSR Congress and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy would go on a Odarpu Yatra after Sankranti festival to console families of more than 80 farmers who had committed suicide due debt burden.
This was announced by Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy during the Maha Dharna he led in front of the Collectorate here on Friday. The Maha Dharna was part of the State-wide protest conducted by the party alleging that the government has failed to solve people’s problems and also failed to keep its promise made on loan waiver amounting to Rs. 87,000 crore to the farmers and Rs. 14,000 crore relief to SHG woman group members.
The district-level dharnas followed mandal-level agitations conducted in the past and he would go on a fast on January 6 and 7, Mr. Jagan said.
The YSRC leader criticised Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu saying that he would not bother to talk about the promises he made during elections. Mr. Naidu would launch a counter-attack if farmers’ suicides issue was raised, there was no clarity on how many farmers would get benefit through loan waiver, students’ fee has not been reimbursed and there were no jobs for the youth or unemployment dole. “Is he fit to be in the politics”, Mr. Jagan asked.
‘Cyclone relief inadequate’He found the relief and rehabilitation operation after Hudhud cyclone in the city inadequate as the majority of victims failed to receive help in spite of Mr. Naidu staying here for a week. The benefit received was 25 kg of rice for Rs. 20, he calculated saying that each BPL family was getting 20 kg of rice at Re. 1 kg every month any way.
Mr. Naidu changed his stand on bauxite mining and PCPIR, rooting for the two projects he strongly opposed when he was in the Opposition, Mr. Jagan said.
Later, Mr. Jagan along with party leaders submitted a memorandum addressed to the Collector, to District Revenue Officer K. Nageswara Rao. YSRC district president G. Amarnath presided over the Maha Dharna. Several party leaders addressed the dharna in which around 6,000 people participated. More than 1,000 police personnel, headed by two Deputy Commissioners of Police, were deployed for security. YSRC leaders alleged that the police had prevented party supporters from different places in the district from coming to the city for Maha Dharna.
