Amaravati: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) general secretary Nara Lokesh on Thursday urged chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to take steps so as to prevent aqua farmers from declaring ‘aqua holiday’ this year.
In a letter to the chief minister, Lokesh said one sector after another, including aquaculture, was getting stuck in crisis ever since the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) came to power. “The sand policy had crushed the construction sector and over 130 allied sectors related to it and hundreds of construction workers eventually committed suicides,” he alleged.
Nara Lokesh expressed concern over the “thoughtless” policies of the Government resulting in a ‘power holiday’ that gave a strong blow to the industry. “Due to a lack of remunerative prices, the farmers were declaring ‘crop holidays’. The steep rise in rates of seed and fertilizer had raised the costs of cultivation,” he said.
Lokesh termed it ‘alarming’ that Andhra Pradesh had come to stand in third place in the country in farmers’ suicides. “Agriculture has totally collapsed. Though one sector after another is collapsing, the YSRCP Government is not taking any preventive steps,” he said.
Lokesh condemned that the chief minister promised a great deal to aqua farmers but after coming to power, he brought the feed-seed act that caused huge losses to the farmers. “The Chandrababu regime took steps to bring double-digit growth in the aqua sector. For this, current charges were reduced by Rs 2.63 per unit,” he added.
Nara Lokesh recalled how Jagan Reddy promised to reduce Rs. 2 per unit to Rs. 1.5 but did not fulfill it after winning the polls. “Chandrababu gave subsidies and free transformers. The YSRCP rule canceled all subsidies and became a cause for a deepening crisis in the aqua sector,” he said.
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