Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy in his reply to the debate on the farmers’ problem in the Assembly said that the government would write to the Centre to treat the recent floods as national calamity and that he would follow it up during his visit to New Delhi.
Reddy also assured that an announcement in regard to the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy will be made in the next few days. "The chairman of the Food Corporation of India would be here on Friday and the government will discuss the issue of purchase of damaged, discoloured and germinated paddy," he said.
The chief minister also alleged that the opposition was politicising the miseries of farmers. "For their mistakes, the state government had to pay Rs 20 lakh to Maharashtra government as air charges to lift them to Hyderabad when they staged a dharna on the Babli issue," he said.
This sparked strong protest from opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu who said the state government buckling under pressure from the Centre colluded with Maharashtra government and forcefully brought them to Hyderabad. "Who asked you to bring us here. To protect state interest, we were willing to go to jail" he said.
Earlier, replying to the debate, revenue minister N Raghuveera Reddy said farmer cards will be issued to all tenant farmers, enabling them to avail bank loans from March. Crop insurance and relief packages will also be applicable to tenant farmers. Government will submit a report on the crop damage to the centre and seek immediate relief, he said.
Raghuveera aid he was willing to go to Naravarapalli and if any farmer there says that Naidu was pro-farmer or helped agriculture, he would quit politics. This led to another round of protest from the TDP and finally amid the ruckus, the House was adjourned sine die.