KAKINADA: Minister for Agriculture Kurasala Kannababu slammed opposition TDP leaders for falsely accusing the government of abandoning farmers and stated that they are making allegations as the government has been curbing ganja cultivation of TDP leaders.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, he said that the opposition has been damaging the morale of the AP government with baseless remarks and false propaganda, while the government is moving ahead by prioritising farmer welfare. They have been working with an agenda of stirring an issue every day to blame the government. He said that in two years Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in two years has done more than what Chandrababu Naidu did in 14 years.

Brushing aside the opposition allegations that a crop holiday was announced, he demanded them to show where it was announced. He stated that farmers have been happily cultivating their crops and the government has been providing input subsidies in the same season of the crop damage. In this regard, the minister said that 96 percent of the farmers have agreed to the installation of power meters and questioned the TDP leaders what additional burden will be laid if there is no cut in the subsidy or hike in price. Like never before by any government, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had announced MSP to seven crops including groundnut to benefit farmers.

Going into the details, Minister Kannababu said that the previous government had reduced the agriculture budget by 10 percent in their term of five years, where even people like Ayyannapatrudu and Devineni Uma remained silent without raising any objections. It was TDP leaders who abandoned the farmers and left pending dues in all sectors.

The opposition leaders have been saying that the government is not buying crops from farmers, while Rs 15,487 crore was spent during 2020-21 towards paddy procurement. During the previous government, in 2014-15 only Rs. 5,583 crore was spent for procuring 40.62 tonnes of paddy. As far as other crops, during TDP rule Rs 402 crore was spent while the current government bought with Rs 2,595 crores between 2019-20. Looking at crop insurance, it was provided to only 24.83 lakh farmers during 2018-19, while it was given to 1.21 crore farmers in the last two years.

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