Somireddy demands financial help for Mandous-hit farmers

PNS|Nellore

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) senior leader and former minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy has lamented that the Mandous cyclonic storm has crippled the farming community in the State and demanded that the government extend financial help to them.

Addressing a press conference virtually here on Monday, he said paddy and horticultural crops were damaged due to the cyclone across the State. The farmers bore the brunt of the cyclone. He said that the worst affected were the paddy farmers as their produce including the harvested crop and ready-to-be-harvested crop got damaged badly by the incessant rains in lakhs of acres. Kakani Govardhan Reddy does not know what farming is but he is the Agriculture Minister, Somireddy criticised.

“Instead of taking immediate steps to save the farmers, the Agriculture Minister is talking about the drought that prevailed during the TDP regime and copious rains during the YSRCP regime. These comments are absurd and reflect the lack of knowledge of the Agriculture Minister on farming and the farmers’ difficulties. Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy is himself a big problem to the farming community in the State,” Somireddy lambasted.

The former minister said that Andhra Pradesh had stood in third place in the suicides of farmers. As many as 161 mandals were declared as drought-hits and 73 severely drought-hit mandals in the year 2020 and asked whether the minister knows about it.

Somireddy demanded that the government take steps to purchase discoloured paddy produce and disburse money to the farmers at the earliest. The government should enumerate the loss to the commercial crops and should pay compensations to the farmers, he asked the government.

“The paddy, cotton, chilli and other commercial crops were also damaged by the untimely rains and the farmers were left in the lurch,” he lamented adding that instead of criticising the TDP and Chandrababu Naidu, the government should focus on the problems of the farming community and do justice to them, he asked the government.

The tomato farmers did not get even Re 1 for the produce while the aqua farmers have come onto the streets as the prices of shrimp crumbled, he deplored and questioned the government to disclose how it is going to protect the interests of the cyclone-affected farmers.

Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy lamented that over 40,000 tonnes of paddy produce is soaking in the rainwater in the West and East Godavari districts and the paddy crop is yet to be harvested in over 1 lakh acres, he informed.