Jagan takes on AP govt for not helping farmers

Former MP S Jaganmohan Reddy on Tuesday launched a frontal attack on the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh ‘for leaving distressed farmers in the lurch’ and warned that any government that neglected the farmers would bite the dust He issued this warning at his 48- hours hunger strike at Vijayawada on Tuesday. About one lakh supporters also are participating in the stir. The hunger strike began at about 11 am in the morning.

According to Jagan camp leaders, about 24 legislators of Praja Rajyam and Congress parties also participated in the programme. Former ministers B Srinivasa Reddy and P Subhashchandra Bose took part in the agitation. Film star Roaja and former Chief Minister of the state and Telugu Desam founder president N T Rama Rao’s wife Laxmiparvathi are the other prominent personalities among the participants.

Addressing the gathering on the occasion, Jagan warned the state Congress that its candidates would lose their deposits in the next elections if they did not attend to the problems of farmers. Quoting his father late S Rajasekhara Reddy’s words, Jagan said that those governments which did not protect the farmers would bite the dust.

Meanwhile, TDP president and former CM N Chandrababu Naidu continued his indefinite hunger strike on the fifth day also. He rejected the request of the ministers to call off his stir.

Three ministers of the state visited Naidu at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences where he was kept under medical attention and appealed to him to take food. They proposed that if he ends stir, the government was ready to increase the package. However, Naidu rejected the proposal and stated that unless the government increases the package, he would not end his stir.