The Krishna district committee of Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangham has condemned what it terms ‘irresponsible’ statement of Minister K. Parthasaradhy on small farmers of the State.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Sangham’s district secretary J. Prabhakar said the Congress Government in the State which had missed no opportunity to project itself as a “farmers’ Government” had failed to address the issues plaguing the farm sector.
The farmer was unable to get remunerative price for farm output and many farmers had committed suicide after they failed to get bank loans.
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All this was happening due to the flawed policies of the Government, he alleged.
In a separate statement, Krishna district secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) R. Raghu said it was ridiculous on the part of the Minister to say that small farmers were unable to meet their growing expenses because they had started sending their kids to private schools on a par with wealthy farmers.
The CPI(M) leader said it only proved the gross ignorance of the Minister on the state of the farmer who was unable to make ends meet.
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He said the number of tenant farmers had been growing in lakhs and the Government had failed to give them identity cards to gain access to loans. In response to a criticism of the Minister’s remarks by Telugu Desam Party leader Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, the district Congress leaders had alleged that the Minister’s statement had been distorted by his political detractors.
They said the TDP leader should draw a comparison between what his Government had done for the farming community when it was in power in the past and what the current Congress Government had been doing to improve the living standards of farmers.