Don’t make farmers pawns in political power games: Lok Satta

The Lok Satta Party today counseled the TDP and the YSR Congress against making farmers pawns in their power games.

The party was commenting on the YSR Congress and the TDP asking each other to move a no-confidence motion against the Government for its failure to go to the farmer’s rescue.

In a media statement, party Working President D. V. V. S. Varma and Secretary V. Vijayender Reddy said that if the two parties were genuinely concerned about farmers, each of them could move a no-confidence motion. The crisis in the agriculture sector, however, calls for a non-partisan approach, they added.

Demanding a special session of the legislature to discuss the crisis in the farm sector, the Lok Satta Party leaders asked the TDP and the YSR Congress to exert pressure on the Government in that direction. If the Government does not come forward to discuss the issue, then all the Opposition parties could join hands and move a no-confidence motion.

With monsoon rains round the corner, the Government should step up paddy procurement. Instead of depending on women’s self-help groups, it should instruct the Food Corporation of India to undertake the bulk of procurement.

The leaders wanted the Government to make millers buy paddy at the minimum support price, ensure payments to farmers by account payee cheques, and facilitate pledge loans to farmers who would like to defer sales anticipating better market conditions.