YSRCP opposes new PAC membership rule

Hyderabad, Dec 18, 2012: Opposing the new membership rules for admission into the Primary Agricultural societies (PACs), the YSR Congress party on Tuesday appealed to the Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy not to water down the agricultural cooperative sector by politicizing it.

In a letter addressed to Kiran Kumar Reddy, the party’s farmers’ wing convener MVS Nagi Reddy and other leaders strongly opposed the new admission rule that a member should be a resident of the place falling within the jurisdiction of the society besides owning a piece of land there. “This rule will only dilute the very purpose of the agricultural cooperative sector as it would deprive several farmers of their membership of the agricultural societies,’ they said in their letter.

Saying that lakhs of farmers are not residents of the villages where their lands are situated, YSR Congress party said such farmers would lose their membership of primary agricultural cooperative societies and the borrowing facility from cooperative banks.

The letter said while YSR gave life to most of the agricultural societies and agricultural cooperative banks by sanctioning funds to the tune of Rs. 1800 Cr as per the Vidyanathan Committee recommendations, the present dispensation has been trying to water down the entire cooperative system.

The letter appealed to the CM not to resort to any step that would damage the cooperative sector and downgrade the morale of the farming community.

Nilam cyclone compensation

The party also asked the Government not to cheat the farmers affected by the Nilam cyclone by increasing the compensation amount per hectare but reducing the total acreage that suffered crop losses due to the cyclone.

Nagireddy and others have charged the Government with supporting the private dairies especially Heritage Dairy in their attempts to form syndicates which brought down the milk collection price to Rs.15 per liter. “This will push the rural farmers into further financial trouble,” they said, objecting to the milk holiday announced by the Government.