Forced by the concomitant fasts of political adversaries in the state for increased compensation to farmers hit by the recent spate of rains in coastal Andhra region, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a grant of Rs. 400 crore as additional relief to the affected farmers.
Congress MPs from the state, burrying their regional differences, met the Prime Minister with the plea for immediate action as the ruling Congress party in the state was being sidelined by the fasts being undertaken by TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu and former Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy.
The delegation of MPs, consisting of Eluru and Vijaywada MPs Kavuri Sambasiva Rao and Lagadapati Rajagopal, and led by Union Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy, first met Congress party President Sonia Gandhi and urged her to help the rain-hit farmers.
They also met Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran and asked him to start purchasing cotton from the farmers.
The MPs then requested Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to procure grains from the farmers.
Though Chnadrababu Naidu was too weak to react to the news of the freshly sanctioned grant, TDP leader K Yerranaidu said that the grant was just an advance which would be adjusted in the accounts books later.
He termed the package as an insult to the farmers of the state, and said that their leader would continue with his fast.
Naidu has been fasting since last Friday demanding that the government grant an input subsidy of Rs. 10,000 per acre for the rain-hit farmers of the state.
All efforts by the Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy to make him withdraw his fast went in vain, and he sticks to his stance adamantly as he enters the 6th day of his fast today.
Former Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy's supporters, too, said that their leader was not going to withdraw his fast.
Jagan began a
48-hour long hunger strike on the banks of river Krishna yesterday, seeking adequate compensation for the rain-hit farmers of the state.