ANANTAPUR: District secretary of the CPI(M) G. Obulakonda Reddy has alleged that the Congress has been neglecting several issues which it had raised and fought when in Opposition along with Left parties concerning the drought-hit Anantapur district.

Speaking to newspersons here on Thursday, Mr. Reddy said that the Congress had raised its voice over suicide of farmers and sought input subsidy of Rs. 2,000 per acre for farmers who had suffered crop loss. The district had been witnessing farmers' suicide again in the last two months, but there had been no response from the Government, he said.

The helpline to counsel farmers in distress was run with some success in 2004, but such farmers had been left helplessly now. With the Government not intervening, the number of suicides rose to about a dozen in August alone. The situation worsened due to another successive season of crop failure.

Dry spell

Scanty rainfall in this kharif had forced farmers to leave about half of the land unsown. About half the seed that was sown had not germinated due to lack of moisture in the soil. Further, the crop was in the process of withering due to the prolonged dry spell, he explained.

Doubts over input subsidy to farmers who suffered crop loss last year and did not get crop insurance benefit had also not been cleared. The Government's sincerity over the proposed cloud-seeding operations was also questionable, he said.

Creating awareness

Mr. Obulakonda Reddy suggested better implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) to prevent migration of labourers. To create awareness against `anti-people' policies of the Centre, the party would launch a campaign in the district from September 1, he said.

The party would conduct meetings in all mandal headquarters as part of the campaign and hold rallies at Anantapur on September 3 and at Kadiri on September 5.

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