The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Government will safeguard ryots' interests: YSR

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 25, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Government will safeguard ryots' interests: YSR

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, AUG. 24. The Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, on Tuesday promised farmers that his Government would always keep their interests in mind while evolving its policies and would not harm them.

Dr. Reddy urged farmers to read his intentions properly when he referred to illegal connections and not be misled by any one. Justifying his stand against the illegal farm connections, he said the Congress was consistently arguing against such connections as it would hinder energy audit.

Illegal connections

Expressing the hope that a solution to the problem would be found in Wednesday's all-party meet, he said one way out could be phase-wise regularisation of connections.

He said it was wrong to say that his Government was planning to harass farmers as its intentions were only to bring an order to the power supply mechanism. Unchecked growth of connections would lead to chaos and it was the Government's duty to protect the interests of farmers who had gone for regular connections.

Releases book

He was addressing a gathering after releasing a book "Prajala Manishi" written by T. Surendra, a journalist working for Andhra Bhoomi, based on the marathon `padayatra' of Dr. Reddy last year.

The Chief Minister said free power promise did not mean that illegal connections would be ignored by the Government. Systems evolved over a period must be honoured and not exploited, he said. The benefit of free power would be extended to all legal connection-holders but no exploitation would be allowed.

Explaining further that illegal connections were hampering the performance of transformers, he said if only farmers had legal connections distribution of power would become easier. The Government could plan energy audit in a better fashion and also regulate power supply.

Flays TDP, BJP

He said the new Congress Government had taken several farmer-friendly decisions as soon as it had come to power in the State and none could question his Government credibility in this matter. In fact, the TDP and the the BJP had no moral right to talk about farmers having neglected the agriculture and irrigation sectors badly during their rule.

Later addressing a press conference, the Congress Legislature Party members, E. Pratap Reddy and T. Jeevan Reddy and the Associate Member, Puli Veeranna, defended the stand attributing `political motives' to the TDP's criticism.

The TDP, which could not even supply seven hours of uninterrupted power supply, had no business to raise farmers' issues, they said. Because of a few illegal connections, a large number of farmers were facing hardships as the transformers unable to take the extra load were breaking down.

The Congress Government had instilled a new confidence among the farming community and had promised them nine hours of continuous power supply, they said claiming that the effort was to ensure its implementation. Fresh applications within the stipulated period would be entitled to regular connections anyhow, they said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh