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YSRCP President YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has criticised the Chandrababu Naidu-led Andhra Pradesh government, alleging that banana farmers in the state have been pushed into severe distress.
Jagan on Thursday said farmers are struggling to survive as a kilogram of bananas is reportedly being sold for just fifty paise. He claimed that during the previous YSRCP government, special railway cargo services were operated exclusively for banana and sugarcane farmers, helping them avoid exploitation by middlemen and significantly reducing transportation costs. He further stated that banana exports, which stood at around 23,000 tonnes before the YSRCP came to power, had increased to nearly 3 lakh tonnes under his administration due to farmer-centric initiatives. "And now, under Chandrababu's governance, the situation has collapsed completely. Is Chandrababu running a government or grazing donkeys?" Jagan remarked. He alleged that the present government has failed to protect farmers' interests and demanded immediate intervention to stabilise market conditions. YSRCP President Jagan Reddy urged his party's Members of Parliament to focus on safeguarding Andhra Pradesh's rights and to highlight the severe challenges currently faced by farmers, workers, and vulnerable communities. Reddy expressed his deep concern over the extensive damage caused by Cyclone Montha, which caused widespread destruction in October and early November, noting that it had devastated lakhs of acres of crops across the coastal districts of the state. According to a YSRCP release, Jagan said farmers who lost their entire harvest are under unbearable financial strain, as "neither the state nor the Centre has provided compensation," and also criticised the failure to ensure Minimum Support Price (MSP), alleging that the present government has left farmers at the mercy of traders and middlemen. He further alleged that MSP has sharply fallen across major crops, including paddy, maize, black gram, cotton, red gram, banana, mirchi and mango, pushing the agriculture sector into a severe crisis and asked his party MPs to demand emergency relief funds and immediate restoration of guaranteed MSP procurement. Jagan also said that free crop insurance--previously provided without a premium during the YSRCP government--has now been "discontinued," leaving farmers "unprotected" during natural disasters. Input subsidy is also not being offered, he added. He alleged that the discontinuation of e-crop enumeration has caused confusion in crop data and denied farmers eligibility for compensation and assistance, and said that mirchi farmers were promised financial support but were "deceived", and mango farmers suffered losses due to non-payment by companies. Raising another major concern, Jagan alleged the mass deletion of MGNREGA job cards, claiming that lakhs of rural labourers, including 18.63 lakh job card holders, have been removed from the rolls, undermining the livelihood security of poor families. He demanded immediate restoration of all genuine job cards and clearance of pending wages. He also instructed MPs to strongly oppose what he described as attempts to "privatise" parts of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. (ANI)
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