Andhra Pradesh - Anantapur   

Political parties behind farm crisis: Lok Satta

Frank opinion: National convenor of Lok Satta Jayaprakash Narayan speaking at a press conference in Anantapur on Wednesday.

ANANTAPUR: Political parties in the State have ruined the agriculture sector with their anti-farmer policies over the years. Keeping aside some sops given here and there, the sector has been denied of all basic infrastructural development, national convenor of Lok Satta Jayaprakash Narayan has observed.

Lack of basic infrastructure in the sector has kept the share of 75 per cent of the country’s population, involved in agriculture, in the country’s GDP at mere 19 per cent, he noted. The government’s drift from the two other basic sectors, education and health, have also had severe impact on the crisis in farming sector, he opined.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, he said that without the development of infrastructure and basic facilities like transportation from farm to market, storage, marketing, institutional credit and support price, it was difficult to overcome the crisis in the farm sector. The parties which had been claiming of doing everything possible to the farm sector were in fact deceiving farmers as they had been neglecting development of infrastructure.

The ruling parties had been exploiting the cooperative institutions as their own assets and only 35 per cent of farmers were able to get credit from the institutions. “The remaining farmers were still knocking the doors of private moneylenders for credit at exorbitant interest rates,” he said. He attributed a majority of farmers’ suicides over the past decade to their abnormal expenditure on education and health needs.

Lack of government patronage had been pushing the two sectors into corporate hands fast. To help the rural youth, he demanded 10 per cent weightage in all competitive exams for higher and professional education and employment irrespective of caste, as the existing reservation system was benefiting only “Collectors’ sons and Ministers’ daughters”.

The party would impart value-based political training to about 20,000 youth over the next one year at its eight political training centres at Hyderabad, Kadapa, Nellore, Vijayawada, Kakinada, Vizianagaram, Warangal and Nizamabad. The party would give 100 tickets for BCs, 20 for minorities, 98 for women and Dalits and tribals as per their quota in the next Assembly elections, he stated.

He also opposed parties’ dichotomy on Babli and Palar issues and welcomed autonomous status to medical colleges and hospitals, provided the interests of the poor were protected.

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