The farmers in the Rayalaseema districts had been neglected due to internal differences of the ruling dispensation, alleged Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan here on Monday.
During visit to a sweet lime farm of a grower in Narayanapuram located in the Anantapur Assembly constituency, he asked the farmer if the government had not come to his rescue to save the trees from drying, to which the farmer said there was no help forthcoming.
Talking to reporters on the farm, he said all this was the result of vote-bank based politics and explained that when the farmer had approached Women’s Welfare Minister Paritala Sunitha, she refused to do anything as the area was in the Anantapur Urban constituency. “When the farmers approached the local MLA from the same party, he did not help them saying the villagers had voted for the YSR Congress Party,” Mr. Pawan said.
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The JSP believed in development-based politics and not vote bank-based, he said and promised to take care of the people’s problems irrespective of their coming to power or not.
Another woman farmer, whose 8-acre curry leaves crop was drying up and no help in the form of water supply from the HLC was forthcoming, said she had to get water in tankers and irrigate. Mr. Pawan lamented the lack of balanced approach and proper planning by the agriculture department officials on advising what to sow and when.
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Release of water from the High Level Canal of the Tungabhadra or the Krishna water from the HNSS canals should be equitably done. The politicians had forgotten the drought-prone Rayalaseema districts after the division of the State. The politicians had only concentrated on their personal interests and ignored the farmers’ interests, he alleged.
The acerage of farming was coming down in the district but the government, by including aqua production with agriculture production, was projecting a rosy picture.
When the government could provide water to the KIA Motors, why not make efforts to provide it to farmers? he asked. “If this same land is given for cultivation to a corporate company, they would prevail upon the government and get things done.”
Asked about the lack of ground-level party infrastructure months before the 2019 general elections, Mr. Pawan said having a general secretary, secretary and constituency in-charge was not essential at this stage as the nascent party was in the organisation-building stage.
Four die in accident
Four persons, who were returning from the Jana Sena Party’s ‘porata yatra’ at Anantapur, died in a road accident at Dhone crossroads on the national highway No.44 late on Sunday night.
According to Deputy Superintendent of Police S. Khadar Basha, the accident occurred when a private bus coming from Hyderabad hit the car by which they were travelling. The deceased were identified as Tadakalla Hanumanna, Mala Madhu, Dasari Moulali, and Harijana Madhu.
The driver of the vehicle, Malli, who was injured in the accident was recovering.