Every Segment Has Been Deceived by Chandrababu
Saripalli, West Godavari: Farmers of Ungutooru took me to aqua ponds this morning. Production costs had risen, market prices were not supportive, there was no assistance from the government and the worst thing was that they were being looted by middlemen, they complained. They pointed out that they contributed significantly to the state economy and a crisis stared the aquaculture industry in the face. This is indeed disturbing because it was an industry which provided employment to thousands of people across the state. In contrast, they pointed out that the industry flourished and they prospered during the tenure of my father, the late Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
While my father stood by the farmer through thick and thin, Chandrababu Naidu supports middlemen and big traders and businessmen at the cost of the poor farmer. This government has allowed the mushrooming of an authorised farming in this industry, leading to a crisis. My father the late Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ensured that quality power supply was available to the farmer at 90 paise per unit. He went the extra mile to make sure that officials give proper advice to farmers and rooted out middlemen from the system. My father ensured that the farmer’s contribution was recognised, rewarded and that he prospered.
Read: Didn’t Chandrababu Resort To Horse Trading Too?
In Chandrababu Naidu‘s time, freshwater lakes have been turned into water bodies for prawn farming and the saline water in these lakes has now become a serious problem in the rural areas because villagers have no access to drinking water in many places.
Instead of giving them high-quality, uninterrupted power, the TDP government has hiked the tariff making it even more difficult for the farmer. Similarly, when it comes to seeds as also all other supportive elements in farming, this government has shown a total lack of quality control. It has only increased the middlemen system and the result is that the farmer finds himself at the receiving end. He is in a helpless state today and has been driven into a crisis of debts. I was deeply disturbed by the emerging facts about aqua farming and I resolved to strengthen this industry and restore it to its former glory.
Sunkara Seetaram of Kodumanchili in Achanta mandal met me and narrated the problem related to appointments of jobs of field assistants. He expressed his anguish at the fact that ignoring well-qualified candidates, the Janmabhoomi committees were trying to get candidates who had only cleared SSC, appointed to these jobs. The worst part is that post graduates and engineering graduates with B. Tech degrees were applying for these lower level posts of field assistants. When the unemployment problem is so acute at the ground level, how can Chandrababu Naidu make tall claims that he has created lakhs of jobs in the state? Such mythical claims belie the reality.
Residents of Mangampeta who were dependent on mining told me that the local pulverising mills were denied job work and as a result 200 local mills were close to being shut down. There were at least 20,000 families which were dependent on this pulversiing mills directly or indirectly and which would get severely impacted by such a closure.
On the one hand, Chandrbabau Naidu government seems to be snatching away livelihood from those who had been surviving on such means for years. On the other, the chief minister makes tall claims about crores of investments, thousands of industries and lakhs of jobs! How untrue his claims are can be gauged when contrasted with reality.
The Joint Action Committee of lecturers drawn from degree, polytechnic and junior colleges met me to narrate the deceptive gains played on them by the TDP government and the injustice meted out to them, which resulted in a deep sense of insecurity. Some of them had been working for as long as 16 years as contract lecturers and were assured of regularisation by Chandrababu Naidu. But the government spent the past four years using the pretext of a ministerial committee to look into their grievances. They also lamented that they were not being paid salaries as per the 10th PRC recommendations, nor was the Supreme Court directive on equal pay for equal work being implemented. It is clear that Chandrababu Naidu is equally insensitive and indifferent to the unemployed and the employed and has only used them for his own selfish end, betraying all of them with his false promises.
I have a question for the chief minister—how is it that aqua farming which was a prosperous sector during my father's tenure has now been driven into losses? Are you not responsible for this? Is it not true that this sector is languishing only because you lack integrity and as in the case of agriculture, you have been patronising only middlemen? Is it not true that your unconditional support to middlemen and big businessmen is helping them loot the system and driving farmers into losses?
