Jagan promises MSP for aquaculture products

‘Telugu Desam govt. to blame for the plight of farmers engaged in the activity’

YSRCP president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy addressing a public meeting at Ganapavaram in West Godavari district on Wednesday.

YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday promised minimum support price (MSP) for aquaculture products.

Addressing a public meeting at Ganapavaram in West Godavari district as part of his Praja Sankalpa Yatra, Mr. Reddy said aquaculture farmers were in dire straits because the TDP government had least concern for them.

Power tariff

Aqua farmers were suffering huge loss because prices plummeted. This was because production was far more than demand. Farmers were forced to sell at below the remunerative price, he said. The YSRCP, on being elected to power, would set up as many food processing units as possible in the first three years. It would announce MSP for fish and prawn in the fourth year, Mr. Reddy said. High power tariff was another factor contributing to their loss, Mr. Reddy said, and added that his government would reduce the tariff on power supplied to the aqua farms from the present ₹3.86 per unit to just ₹1.50. “When neighbouring Odisha can give aqua farmers power at the rate of ₹1.50 a unit, why cannot Andhra Pradesh?” he asked.

Similarly, the per-unit cost of power to the allied sectors such ice factories and food processing units would also be reduced from ₹7 to ₹5, Mr. Reddy promised.

Kolleru resurvey

The YSRCP president said there were many flaws in the Kolleru Lake survey conducted by the TDP government in 1999. The YSRCP would order a resurvey soon after coming to power to rectify them, he said.

“A person who has good understanding of the Kolleru problem will be made an MLC. He will resolve all the issues,” Mr. Reddy said. Referring to the drinking water problem in the villages, he said it was because no water was coming from the upper reaches.

“The YSRCP, on coming to power, will dig summer storage tanks in every village. The tanks will be filled with the waters of the Godavari and the Krishna,” he said.

Mr. Reddy said Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who had misused the office of the Speaker to allow 23 YSRCP MLAs into the TDP, had no right to say democracy had won in Karnataka.