2019 A Year Of Farmers’ Welfare

KAKINADA: Minster of Agriculture Kurasala Kanna Babu termed the year 2019 as ‘Rythu Samkshema Naama Samvatsaram’ (Year of farmers’ welfare). He said that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government would give many more fruitful results next year.

Talking to media here on Tuesday, the Minister said the government introduced village secretariats and gave about 1,40,000 jobs and also introduced the volunteers system which was one of the historic steps taken by the Chief Minister.

He said about 80 percent of the manifesto promises were implemented within six months and the Chief Minister has set an example of how a government should function. Compared to the previous TDP government the decisions taken by the present government were role models for the country. He termed the APSRTC merger with the government as a ‘historical’ one.

‘As the agriculture minister, I would like to say that YSR Rythu Bharosa was a revolutionary step taken by the Chief Minister,’ the Minister said and added that ‘Several decisions have been taken for farmers welfare such as Interest-free loans, free insurance for farmers, free borewell and free power supply to farmlands. Apart from these, for provision of quality seeds to farmers, labs would be set up in every district and only tested seeds would be supplied.’

He said that in the Rythu Bharosa centers, agri-unit workshops would be started. These centers would be established in three phases; in February, about 3,330 centers would be set up and by April a total of 11,500 centers would be introduced. Moreover, the last installment of the Rythu Bharosa amount would be deposited in the farmers' accounts on January 2.

The Minister said that as directed by the Chief Minister, from the upcoming Kharif season, seeds would be supplied in every Rythu Bharosa center and these centers would be functioning as purchasing centers also.

He said that the agriculture mission under Chief Minister’s regulation was keen on farmers' welfare for which the Chief Minister was conducting regular review meetings on various agriculture issues. For the first time in the state, the Chief Minister has allocated Rs 330 crore under market intervention for fried grams farmers. Likewise, The Chief Minister directed the officials to see that palm oil farmers get the same price on par with Telangana farmers for which he directed to pay Rs 85 crore.

Terming 2019 as ‘Rythu Samkshema Naama Samvatsaram’ (Year of farmers’ welfare), the minister assured that the government would work for farmers’ welfare under any circumstances.

He said that Amma Vodi would start on January 9 and provide Rs 15,000 financial assistance to 49 lakh mothers of school-going children.

He flayed Chandrababu Naidu for his failure to make Vision 2021 a reality and said that actual vision was shown by Jagan Mohan Reddy. He lambasted opposition parties for misguiding the capital city villagers.

‘Has anyone from the government said that the capital city would be shifted?’ He questioned the TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu for trying to discriminate against the government before the announcement on the capital city. Previously, the opposition had used sand and English medium issues for their political benefits and now it is the capital city issue.

He said people are noticing everything and that the amount spent by the previous government on capital city construction was only Rs 5,700 crore which includes Rs 1,500 crore from the central government. He also questioned as to who would bring Rs 1 lakh crore for the capital city construction and said that the proposal of three capital cities was for the decentralization of development.