Sajjala flays Chandrababu

Amaravati : Rubbishing the letter of Chandrababu, Government Adviser (Public Affairs) Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy said the content of the letter is filled with false allegations against State government.
He said that opposition TDP leaders have no moral right to speak on farmers' issues, as they left a debt of Rs 960 crore towards crop procurement, during a press conference here on Thursday.
The letter written by Chandrababu about the pending arrears to farmers is a false propaganda by the TDP leaders. He said that the opposition has been showing false concern on farmers and the agriculture sector, but in reality, the same TDP government had left a pending due of Rs 960 crore which has to be paid for crop procurement. It was Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who took the initiative of clearing all those pending arrears left by Chandrababu Naidu. He said that Chandrababu should be ashamed for writing a letter saying that the farmers were paid with in 48 hours of procuring the crops in the rule.
He said that people have not yet forgotten the dark days of TDP rule, and stated that Jagan Mohan Reddy’s governance had instilled confidence among farmers. Drawing comparison between TDP and YSRCP government’s crop procurement, Ramakrishna Reddy said that hardly 18 lakh tonnes were procured during 2014-15 and by the end of TDP term, in 2018-19 20.5 lakh tonnes of crop was procured at a cost of Rs 4800 crore and leaving arrears of Rs 1000 crore. In the current government, under the direction of the Chief Minister in 2019-20 nearly 34.74 lakh tonnes of crop was procured by paying Rs 6331 crore and in 20-21, so far over 25 lakh tonnes were procured by paying Rs 4728 crore to the farmers and shall complete the targeted procurement of 45 lakh tonnes this year, said Sajjala stating that it is a clear evidence that YSRC government is committed to farmer welfare.
Speaking on providing Minimum Support Price (MSP), he said that the main concern behind bringing MSP is to safeguard the farmers from not falling into losses by selling their produce at non-profitable price. It is not mandatory for the farmers to sell their crops to the government, they can sell their crops to whoever is paying higher price and the government job is to oversee that farmers are getting paid enough. He stated that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy included tenant farmers under e-cropping, who were indeed left out during the TDP regime with no support. Currently, the procurement is taking place at village level right at the farmgate, he said and added that their government's goal is to stand by the farmers from seed to sale.
In regard to property tax, he said that TDP is unnecessarily criticizing the government with no clear reason except sheer jealousy. Under the FRBM Act, the State is implementing the recommendations of the Central Government as per 15th Finance Commission, which is already being implemented in BJP ruled states. The additional revenue to the government due to the upgraded property tax policy is only Rs 186 crore, said Sajjala and added that none of the property owners are making a fuss, except TDP and BJP leaders. Speaking on the pending arrears by Centre, he said that BJP can take that credit by giving Rs 3,300 crore arrears.