HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has fully endorsed the appeal made by Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy to the farmers to avoid paddy cultivation during rabi season and diversify to commercial crops.

At a meeting of the APCC executive chaired by party president K. Keshava Rao here on Saturday, several senior leaders came out in support of the Chief Minister and derided the Telugu Desam Party and the BJP for their attempt to derive political mileage from Dr. Reddy's remarks about denying free supply to farmers who waste power.

`No restrictions'

After Finance Minister K. Rosaiah explained in detail the Government's policy of supplying free power to farmers, the Chief Minister said agriculture officials would interact with farmers to persuade them to switch over to irrigated dry crops instead of paddy.

He emphasised that that no restrictions had been imposed on farmers.

The Chief Minister pointed out that the latest decision was not new and had already been discussed in the Assembly in February where a modified proposal was circulated.

Asserting that the free power policy would continue, he urged the party cadres to hold village-level meetings and convince farmers to go in for commercial crops.

He also dwelt upon the ambitious `Adarsh Andhra Pradesh' programme to provide basic amenities in towns and villages at a cost of about Rs. 23,000 crores. Dr. Keshava Rao said a meeting of senior leaders and representatives of the TRCCC would be convened shortly to clear apprehensions in the minds of leaders on irrigation projects.

Major Irrigation Minister Ponnala Laxmaiah would attend the meeting. He called upon the partymen to gear up for the panchayat elections and denied charges that the Congress was trying to split the Telangana Rashtra Samiti.

The APCC executive complimented him on completing one year in office. It adopted resolutions condoling the death of 114 passengers in the Delta Fast Passenger rail accident, complimenting the newly elected municipal chiefs and thanking the AICC for choosing Hyderabad as the venue for the 82nd plenary meeting.

The meeting was attended by Ministers D. Srinivas, Md. Ali Shabbir, K. Rosaiah, Kanna Laxminarayana, Konathala Ramakrishna, Rajya Sabha member V. Hanumantha Rao, former Chief Minister N. Bhaskara Rao and others.

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