TDP tactics on Centre dubbed 'high drama'

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, DEC. 10. Senior Congress(I) leaders have dubbed the `pressure tactics' employed by the TDP on the NDA Government to secure a better deal for the farmers in the State `as high drama' to cover up the failures of both the Governments to rescue the farmers in time.

At a meeting got up by the A.P. Youth Congress to felicitate Mr. M. Satyanarayana Rao, on his unanimous election as APCC president, the Congress leaders criticised the BJP and TDP for `forgetting the farmers' in the crucial period when they resorted to distress sale and exhibiting a `belated concern for the sake of public consumption'.

Setting the tone for the tirade against the Central and State Governments, the CLP leader, Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, said the dharna by the TDP MPs on Parliament premises was `high drama'. All that the TDP could achieve was to force the FCI to purchase 10 lakh tonnes of paddy from the farmers (three lakh tonnes by FCI and seven lakh tonnes by the State agencies).

Dr. Reddy said the State Government had agreed to avail RBI credit to enable State agencies procure paddy which was unnecessary as it could have utilised, by now, about Rs.700 crores of market cess available with it, for market intervention. The farmers had disposed of about 70 per cent their produce and the belated entry would do them no good.

The CLP leader said the Government could not ensure minimum support price (MSP), leave alone remunerative price. He said the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, was adopting double standards by faulting the Congress for paralysing the Assembly on the power tariff but directing his party MPs to resort to a similar protest to force the Centre to listen to him.

Dr. Reddy said the cost of cultivation of paddy, according to estimates of the Directorate of Agriculture, was Rs.580 a tonne but the MSP was much below at Rs.510 a tonne. He said the price difference in the MSPs for wheat and rice, which used to be a mere Rs.20 a quintal in 1995-96, shot up to Rs.110. The wheat lobby of Punjab had ensured for the last five years that the MSP was substantially hiked.

The former Chief Minister, Mr. N. Janardhan Reddy, MP, questioned the moral right of Mr. A.B. Vajpayee to continue in office after bringing the Hindutva agenda to the fore. The farmers were left to their fate but the BJP-led Government's priority was to build the Ram temple.

Replying to felicitations, Mr.Satyanarayana Rao, said a steering committee would be set up to chalk out an action programme against the anti-people policies of the TDP Government. He said the Congress would sweep the ensuring panchayat elections as the people had seen through the `gameplan of Mr. Naidu who is biding time with high tech publicity'. He said the formation of the PCC executive would be delayed in view of elections for the Congress Working Committee.

The former CLP leader, Mr. P. Janardhan Reddy, former Ministers, Mr. G. Venkataswamy, Mr. K. Kesava Rao and others spoke.

The APYC president, Mr. P. Sudhakar Reddy, who presided, said the Youth Congress would also chalk out an agitation programme against the policies of the Government.

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Section  : Southern States
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