HYDERABAD: Opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday urged prime minister Manmohan Singh to pay compensation to farmers who have declared crop holiday in various parts of the state protesting against the indifferent attitude of the state and central government.In a letter to Manmohan Singh, Naidu said that farmers in state were in an unusual predicament. Even with a reasonably good yield from the fields, farmers could not get minimum support price for paddy last season and they were left with huge stocks with them. Moreover, they lost a lot of crops to a series on natural calamities and incurred huge losses. Government agencies failed to procure the paddy and due to acute shortage of storage of space in godowns, paddy stocks were left unprotected in open fields, Naidu said. Under the circumstances, farmers had to resort to distress selling. Besides, non-implementation of the recommendations of Swaminathan Committee report was also pushing farmers into debt, he said.“As a result, farmers in the fertile East Godavari district voluntarily declared crop holiday and kept their lands fallow. This unprecedented situation has wider ramifications in the long run and will have disastrous consequences on food security. The state government has failed to convince farmers and dealt with the issue very casually and left them to their fate,” Naidu wrote. He urged the prime minister to send a team of experts to study the issue at the grassroots level and suggest remedial actions keeping in view the suggestions made by Swaminathan committee.
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