Will The Chandrababu Government Wake Up After This Tragedy?  

Kobbarichetlapeta, Srikakulam district: My Padayatra proceeded through Narasannapeta and Tekkali constituencies today. On the occasion of Vaikuntha Ekadasi, several women came and offered Prasadam to me after performing Poojas in the morning.

My Padayatra today much like yesterday, was marked by dark clouds and a slight drizzle, apart from chilly winds. The roads became muddy on account of the rain and after lunch it became difficult to continue the walkathon for the day.

The name Challavanipeta is derived from buttermilk for which the village was once renowned. Dairy farmers in the village expressed their anguish at the state of affairs. Since their produce did not get a fair price in the market, cattle were being sent to the Narayanavalasa market where they would be sold before being transported to slaughter houses. Today, Challavanipeta remained only on paper or in name.

Salt farmers of Daruvala village met me today. The entire village lives off salt production. They were worried that cyclones and rain were destroying their staple produce. Farmers from the village lamented that they were not getting water to their fields from Lingalavalasa lift irrigation scheme. Officials were discriminating against them and not laying pipelines for a small section leading to their village, they complained. They said it was on account of such bias shown by TDP leaders that irrigation water was being denied to Udigilapadu from Venkatapuram lift irrigation scheme. Most of the agriculturists here are paddy farmers.

I could see for myself the difficulties farmers were put to in trying to salvage their freshly harvested crop from the ravages of nature. The two major cyclones at two important phases of the farming cycle ruined their crops completely, they lamented. Cyclone Titli impacted agricultural production, while cyclone Phethai destroyed their harvested crop, they lamented. With no storage facilities to preserve the crop they managed to salvage, or points of sale, farmers are facing many a challenge in trying to overcome this crisis.

While centres of sale should have been set up last month, they haven’t been put in place yet, farmers complained. “Not a grain has been purchased, Anna,“ farmers said. They were at a loss to understand how to face the fury of nature year after year. The grieving farmers did not know what to do with the standing crop in their fields destroyed by the cyclone.

The Chandrababu Naidu government which should rush to the help of the farmers to set up buying centres for their produce and should put in place a compensation mechanism immediately, has been very slow to respond to the crisis. It announces a paltry sum as relief. Even that bit of relief announced by the government is marked by rampant corruption. Ranging from the selection of cyclone victims to the assessment of damage to compensation amount, at every step there is clear discrimination and injustice which marks the process. The Janmabhoomi committee mafia rules the roost even at such times.

I was moved by one incident which was symbolic of the miserable plight of farmers under the TDP government. A farmer, belonging to Kosamala village in Srikakulam district, Chinnaiah, who saw his crop submerged by the flooding caused by the cyclone, committed suicide in his field unable to bear the sight of his ravaged crop. If only the government had put in place a proper crop insurance mechanism, such tragedies could easily have been averted. Will the government ever wake up?

I have a question for the chief minister—you brag about using state of the art technology to minimise the destruction wrought by storms and cyclones. How can you as chief minister, propagate blatant falsehoods saying that there have been no deaths at the ground level on account of the cyclone? Don’t you feel ashamed of using information provided by IMD and pretending as if you alone have access to deeper knowledge of the matter? Do you have the required technology, instruments or equipment to determine the speed of cyclonic winds, or the intensity of the cyclone as it progresses?