Raghuveera Demands Naidu's Apology

Agriculture Minister N Raghuveera Reddy, on Tuesday, demanded that former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu tender an unconditional apology for his alleged vitriolic remarks made against the State Governor E S L Narsimhan.

Raghuveera Reddy told media persons that Naidu had no locus standi to criticise the Governor particularly when the latter went to Anantapur district to know the problems of the farmers. Anantapur district was always in the grip of drought and the governor had spent an hour with the groundnut farmers to check whether they received any compensation from the State government, he said.

The minister stated that the district had been suffered due to drought, for 7 years. In contrast to the Rs. 598 crore as compensation given by the TDP during its regime during 1995-2005, the Congress government recently gave farmers Rs. 2,700 crore as crop insurance, he revealed.

He said that the district regularly reels under drought due to either excess rains or no rains. The YSR government, with the Centre's assistance, had evolved a new crop insurance scheme for the farmers on the lines of an American system, with students from the US visiting and their version for utilising modern farm techniques being taken into account, he said.

The minister condemned Naidu's criticism against the Governor saying that the TDP chief had done nothing for the welfare of the farmers during his stint in power. Raghuveera Reddy sarcastically remarked that Naidu is allergic to farmers' woes and that he knows nothing about their grievances.

Referring to Naidu's statement regarding Chief Minister K Rosaiah, the minister stated that he had no business to teach lessons and that he be in his limits.

"Despite all odds, Rosaiah has been functioning effectively," he said, and added that the Chief Minister was a '1,000 times better than Naidu', who had come to power backstabbing his mentor and ignored NTR's pet policies like prohibition, Rs. 2-a-kg scheme, among others.

Courtesy: INN