The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : TDP seeks all-party panel to help chilli growers

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Wednesday, May 07, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

TDP seeks all-party panel to help chilli growers

Special Correspondent

Move will allay fears of farmers, says Kodela Sivaprasada Rao

HYDERABAD: The Telugu Desam Party has sought constitution of an all-party committee to go into the fire accident at the chilli market yard in Guntur and recommend ways to help growers of the crop.

At a press conference here on Tuesday, the party’s senior leader, Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, said such a committee would set at rest apprehensions among farmers ranging from the cause of the fire to shifting of the yard.

‘Farmers upset’

In fact it was these fears that TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu tried to highlight when he visited the market yard on Monday. It was not as if Mr. Naidu had invented these fears as was projected by agriculture market committee chairman, L. Appi Reddy, Finance Minister K. Rosaiah and another Minister M. Mareppa.

Dr. Rao said the chilli farmers were terribly upset as reflected in the suicide by one of them, as the Government had not come up with any concrete plan to bail them out. Three days had gone by but it was unable to pinpoint the cause of the fire.

Government warned

Their apprehensions were based on the Government’s failure to rescue them when untimely rain had damaged a large quantity of chillis. Warning the Government against shifting the yard, he said the proposal looked suspect as the present yard was spread over 56 acres.

Dr. Rao also charged the Government with violating the model code of conduct by announcing location of the Central University in Kadapa and release of Rs. 19 crore for the IIT in Medak.

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