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.