Raghuveera creating artificial scarcity, looting farmers : Babu

Accusing Agriculture Minister N Raghuveera Reddy of looting farmers by selling fertilizers in black market and by creating artificial scarcity, Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday demanded that Chief Minister K Rosaiah to explain reasons for failure in supply of required fertilizers to farmers.

Mr Naidu also criticized the state government for its failure in supplying fertilizers to farmers and alleged that it was moving at snail’s pace in initiating steps to allay farmers’ fears of crop loss.

Talking to media persons at the NTR Trust Bhavan, Mr Naidu said though the farmers are in dire straits over the supply of inadequate quantity of fertilizers, the Chief Minister was issuing irresponsible statements that the Opposition was politicizing the issue to get mileage.

The former chief minister wondered the about the mismatch between the Chief Minister’s statement that the state has adequate quantity of fertilizers and the situation on the ground where the farmers were agitating for fertilizers.

“The state government has no vision. The agriculture officials have no data on exact requirement of fertilizers needed for the Kharif season. The government failed totally on seeking assistance from Centre over the required quantity of fertilizers,” the TDP president stated.

Reacting on the filing of cases against Balaji fertilizers owned by Kadapa Mayor Ravindranath Reddy, Mr Naidu demanded police to file cases against Mr Reddy instead of registering cases against factory attenders.

The TDP chief also sought AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s personal attention to the goings on in the state and said that his party would extend full cooperation to the young leader in checking corruption and scams.

He also expressed solidarity with the Telangana lawyers, who are staging agitation seeking 42 percent quota in judiciary for Telanganites at the High Court.

The former chief minister reminded that during the tenure of Telugu Desam Party, the government had reserved posts –40 per cent for Telangana, 40 per cent for Andhra and 20 per cent for Rayalaseema based on the population. However, the Congress government changed the quota pattern and created regional disturbances violating the rules and regulations, he alleged.

Mr Naidu also expressed confidence that the people of Telangana know what the TDP has done for them and they would not forget the party.