Naidu Meets Sharad Pawar

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday met Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in New Delhi to discuss with him the sorry condition of the farmers in the state.

Emerging from his meeting with the Union Minister, the TDP chief spoke to the media, and stated that he had explained the miserable condition of AP's paddy farmers to Pawar.

For more than 3 months now, paddy agriculturists have been struggling due to the lack of takers for their produce, and if anyone did purchase the paddy, they did so at rates much lower than the prescribed Minimum Support Price (MSP).

Naidu charged that less than 2% of the total Rabi produce was bought by the governmental grain purchase centres set up across the state. He attributed this condition to the "inexperienced" Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, who, according to Naidu, is incapable of handling crisis situations.

He alleged that KKR was not committed to the cause of the farmers.

He went on to say that farmers had invested more than usual this year in growing their crops, and that the delay in the procurement of the paddy was causing them further distress.

He reportedly appealed to the Union Agriculture Minister to take the necessary measures to clear the existing paddy stocks from procurement cantres, and to ensure that the farmers get the MSP for their grains.