Telugu Desam Party national general secretary Nara Lokesh has alleged that the State government has failed in rescuing farmers from floods and claimed that about 750 ryots committed suicide after the YSR Congress Party came to power.
Mr. Lokesh, who toured Krishna district to inspect the crops damaged due to floods on Monday, criticised the government for not coming to the rescue of the farmers whose crops were inundated in floods and suffered huge losses. Cotton, paddy, chilli, horticulture and aquaculture crops, worth crores of rupees, were damaged due to heavy rains that lashed in the last one month, he said.
The former Minister walked into the fields and observed the damage suffered by the crops in the island villages on the Krishna and West Godavari district borders.
While the TDP government had completed 70% of the Polavaram project, the YSRCP government could not take up any construction work in the last 17 months but had mortgaged the national project with the Centre for Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s self interests, the TDP leader alleged.
Instead of helping the farmers in distress, the Ministers were insulting them and even ration was not being supplied to flood victims, Mr. Lokesh said as he interacted with paddy farmers. The villagers showed him the crops soaked in the floodwater that stagnated in the fields for 15 days.
Loss assessment
The aquaculture farmers, who invested about ₹5 lakh per acre, suffered huge losses due to the floods, but government had not yet started the enumeration process, Mr. Lokesh alleged.
“How can the YSRCP government claim itself as Rythu Rajyam, when the farmers were weeping with losses?” he questioned and demanded that the government take measures to bail them out of losses.
