NDA government in Andhra Pradesh pursuing anti-farmer policies, says YSRCP president Jagan Mohan Reddy

YSRCP president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has accused the NDA government in Andhra Pradesh of pursuing anti-farmer policies and neglecting the plight of cultivators devastated by Cyclone Montha.

After touring the affected villages and interacting with the farmers on Tuesaday, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said the State government had dismantled the crop insurance mechanism, leaving lakhs of farmers without support.

The government should pay crop insurance compensation to all the farmers, stating that “armchair enumeration” led to irregularities. Citing Bapatla district, where e-cropping figures ranged between 112% and 120%, which, he said, indicated haphazard and inflated reporting process.

The government should immediately release crop insurance payments, along with the pending dues of ₹600 crore, he said.

“It is Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s fault to discontinue crop insurance. The government must now bear the burden and compensate every farmer. They must also pay the premium for the upcoming rabi season,” the former Chief Minister said while addressing the media.

He criticised the government for “hurried and flawed” crop enumeration, claiming that officials were instructed to finish assessments in a day. “Enumeration teams never visited the fields in several districts, leading to under-reporting of losses across 15 lakh acres,” he alleged.

The YSRCP chief said paddy in 11 lakh acres was ruined, alongside extensive losses to cotton, maize, banana, and other crops.

“While farmers suffered, Mr. Naidu conducted an aerial survey and left for London, and his son and HRD Minister N. Lokesh attended a cricket match in Mumbai,” Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy alleged.

In the coalition government’s 18-month tenure, the State faced 16 disasters ranging from cyclones to droughts, and yet farmers received neither empathy nor aid, he said. He also accused the government of scaling down the extent of crop loss to evade compensation and of paying only ₹5,000 out of the ₹20,000 input subsidy promised for two years.

In contrast, he said, during the YSRCP government, input subsidies and crop insurance were paid promptly, and a ₹3,000 crore Price Stabilisation Fund maintained to ensure Minimum Support Price for farmers, with a total of ₹7,800 crore spent to safeguard their interests.

The once-effective Rythu Bharosa Kendras had become non-functional under the current regime, he said. “During our government, we paid crop insurance premia for 85 lakh farmers. Now, only 19 lakh are covered because the government failed to pay premium for others,” he said.