CM’s response to the crisis in aquaculture sector is inadequate: Jagan

YSRCP president and former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

VIJAYAWADA

YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) president and former CM Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s response to the impact of the hike in tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on the aquaculture sector of Andhra Pradesh was delayed and inadequate. Mere writing of a letter to the Central government would not solve the problem, he said.

Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said the government was not intervening in spite of the continuous fall in prices. The price of 100-count prawns suddenly dropped from ₹280 to ₹200–210 but the CM appeared to be content with writing a letter to the Centre. 

During the YSRCP regime, aquaculture was spread across approximately 4.22 lakh acres compared to just about 90,000 acres under the TDP rule. Out of 64,000 electricity connections in the aquaculture sector, 54,000 were given power at ₹1.50 per unit by the YSRCP Government. The subsidies thereof amounted to ₹3,640 crore. 

Various other steps were taken to help the aqua farmers face the market vagaries, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said, demanding that Mr. Chandrababu Naidu should immediately announce prices for prawns in order to stop the price crash, and take stringent action against those looting farmers in the name of U.S. tariffs, which were not limited to India and were bound to continue in the future.

Minimum Support Price

Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said farmers growing paddy, cotton, tobacco, chilli, tur dal, green gram, black gram, banana, tomato and a host of other crops were also deprived of Minimum Support Prices (MSP). The government had been hitting back at those questioning its failures but not taking necessary action that would improve the lot of the beleaguered farmers, he said.