Naidu`s padayatra to gain political mileage: Cong

Congress on Thursday said that Chand Babu Naidu`s `padayatra` aimed at highlighting farmers` problems was only to gain political mileage.

Hyderabad: Training their guns on TDP chief N
Chandrababu Naidu, Congress on Thursday said that his `padayatra`
aimed at highlighting farmers` problems was only to gain
political mileage.

"Naidu began his `padayatra` in Anantapur district
yesterday. We thought he would make constructive suggestions
to the government on mitigating the sufferings of farmers.
But, Naidu`s only aim appeared to be gaining political
mileage," Anantapur Lok Sabha member A Venkatarama Reddy and
several other Congress legislators told reporters here.

Alleging that Naidu had totally neglected agriculture
during his nine-year long tenure as Chief Minister, Reddy
claimed that the TDP chief was trying to win over the farmers
now by highlighting their problems.

"Naidu had earlier described agriculture as an
unproductive and wasteful profession. He had said free power
for farmers was never possible," Reddy said.

The Congress government in Andhra Pradesh has been
providing free power to farmers since it came to power in 2004
and implemented various other major benefits like loan waiver,
increase in the Minimum Support Price for farmers, he said.

"The Kiran Kumar Reddy government has now decided to
provide interest-free loans to farmers. We have represented
the drought in Anantapur district to state government and it
has agreed to provide input subsidy to the tune of Rs 255
crore among several other measures," he said.

Asked why the Congress leaders were not so vocal in
condemning the criticism made by Kadapa MP Y S Jagan Mohan
Reddy against the state government, the MP said they responded
in equal measure over the criticism against the government.

PTI

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