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Naidu assures help to farmers on tobacco issue

Our Bureau

VIJAYAWADA, May 28

THE Telugu Desam Government is doing its best to find a solution to the tobacco crisis in Andhra Pradesh and no effort will be spared to help the cause of the farmers, the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, has said.

On the second day of the three-day plenary of the Telugu Desam Party here on Sunday, he said he had held six or seven meetings with all parties concerned - the farmers, the trade, and the officials of the Tobacco Board and the Union Ministry of Commerce - and appraised the Union Minister of Commerce, Mr. Murasoli Maran, and the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, of the gravity of the situation.

``I shall speak to Mr. Maran again and impress upon him the need for immediate remedial steps. With the onset of the monsoon, the crop will get discoloured and it would be difficult for farmers to store it at the field level. It is a very difficult probl em, but all possible help will be rendered to farmers,'' he said.

The Chief Minister said the agricultural policy of the State would be announced soon and the main emphasis would be on localised district-level research and on-farm extension work, with the district market committees as the main centres of activity.

``A research centre would be set up in each district and it would be linked with the district market committee so that there would be no shortage of funds for the research purposes,'' he said.

Reacting on the tobacco issue, Dr. Y. Sivaji, President of the Virginia Tobacco Farmers' Association and also a member of the ruling Telugu Desam Party, said the Union Government was not fulfilling the promises given to tobacco farmers and at every stage hurdles were being set up.

He said STC was buying tobacco nominally only on 10 out of the 21 floors and of late STC officials had received instructions to reduce the price. ``Till now, STC is buying the crop at the last year's average price plus 10 per cent for different grades of the crop, but from Monday onwards it would not pay the additional 10 per cent. The officials have received instructions to that effect. This will further aggravate the crisis,'' he said.

He said the proposal to set up a price stabilisation fund with one per cent of the total proceeds of the cigarette industry would have greatly eased the problem, but the Union Government was not acting on the long-pending proposal and the members of Parl iament from the State were not able to pursue it vigorously.