Hitting out at the Congress rule in Andhra Pradesh for its poor response to providing relief to rain-hit farmers, former Congress MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday said the government would have to bid goodbye to power in the state, if it neglected farmers.
“If this government feels that elections are three years away and that they need not take care of farmers, then it will go into a situation where it would not even get deposits. At least now, this government should open its eyes and rectify its mistakes. If it fails to become farmer-friendly, then I warn that the time has arrived for this government to go,” he said.
He was addressing a concluding public meeting on the banks of Krishna river here where he held a hunger fast for 48 hours demanding adequate compensation for farmers who suffered massive crop losses due to frequent cyclones, heavy rains and floods in the state during the last one year.
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The relief package announced by the government failed to stop the suicides by the farmers in distress, he charged.
“While 42 farmers ended their lives before the government announced the relief package, 84 farmers died after the package was announced. Does this government still not feel not ashamed of it?” he asked.
Stating that the farmers would not have suffered so much had his father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy been alive, Mr. Jagan said the Congress government lacked the “sensitivity and spirit” of the late Chief Minister.
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