AP Govt Cleared Massive Debts Left By TDP to Farmers

Amaravati, June 19: Minister for Civil Supplies Kodali Venkateswararao (Nani) on Saturday flayed TDP Chief Chandrababu Naidu for falsely claiming that payments for paddy procurement was done within 48 hours during TDP rule and clarified that the State government had cleared over Rs 960 crores of pending arrears left towards paddy procurement.

Speaking to the media, the minister stated that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had paid Rs 4,000 crore towards the dues kept pending by the TDP government to farmers,  within three months after coming to power in 2019. He has mentioned that both State and Centre have procured 28 lakh metric tonnes of paddy and paid Rs 1,637 crore to farmers by the time Chandrababu wrote a letter to the Chief Minister. With directions from Chief Minister, the government is paying within 21 days of crop procurement and as of date only Rs 1619 crore is yet to be paid.

Kodali Nani said that the Centre has to release the pending arrears of about Rs 3229 crore to the State, and although there has been a delay in clearing those dues, the government has been paying the farmers from the State treasury. He said that Chandrababu Naidu doesn’t even know the difference between bran and grain and is afraid of writing a letter to the Centre fearing about his cases.

He slammed Chandrababu for betraying one crore farmer community by promising to waive Rs 85,000 crore farm loans during the 2014 elections and not even clearing 20 per cent of the promised amount in his five-year rule.