VISAKHAPATNAM: The State Government had not only failed to carry out drought-relief measures to farmers but also was not successful in securing sufficient support from the Centre in this regard, said BJP national secretary and former Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya here on Tuesday.

He said the drought relief package announced by Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in the Assembly on Monday was highly unsatisfactory.

Input subsidy

Instead of completely waiving the interest, the Government allowed it only for one year and rescheduling the loans for three years would ultimately lead to additional debt burden on the farmer, the BJP leader said at a press conference.

The Chief Minister talked of making proposals for a Rs.16,000-crore package to the Centre even though the estimation of loss was not completed, he said. The input subsidy of Rs.800 for an acre in the case of rain-fed crops like groundnut, maize and sunflower was not sufficient and the Government must provide seed at 75 per cent subsidy. The BJP leader criticised the way the Government was planning and executing welfare programmes. Mr. Dattatreya alleged that the AP Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation was selling plots at Parawada at the rate of Rs.25 lakhs to Rs.30 lakhs per plot to the industrial units after acquiring the land from farmers at the rate of Rs.3 lakhs per acre.

Senior party leaders D.V. Subba Rao, P.V. Chalapathi Rao, city president Bandaru Ranga Mohan Rao, T. Subbirami Reddy and K. Ratnakumari were present at the press conference.

Earlier, Mr. Dattatreya addressed the executive committee of the city unit of the party, which would be shortly going for elections. He also called on a veteran senior RSS functionary Chivukula Subrahmanya Sastry who has been ailing for some time.

`Chintan Bhaitak'

The BJP and not the Telangana Rashtra Samiti had the strength from the grassroot level to achieve a separate Telangana, said Mr. Dattatreya. The State BJP would hold a `Chintan Bhaitak' before the elections of the State committee, scheduled to be held on October 27, to chalk out a struggle along with the other issues of the State, he said.

He said the BJP would go it alone as far as Telangana was concerned but later added, "Political equations will change, we can't say when and how. We will have to wait and see the political developments in the State and at Centre."

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