Tadepalli, August 11: YSRCP Tadepalligudem constituency coordinator and former APSADA Vice-Chairman Vaddi Raghuram said the Chandrababu Naidu-led coalition government is deceiving aqua farmers by repackaging old GOs and imposing an unbearable Rs. 1,000 crore Power Factor burden on small cultivators. Addressing the media at the YSRCP central office, he said GO 57 merely rewrites the conditions of GO 169 and provides no real relief. Requiring farmers to maintain a Power Factor between 0.92 and 0.95 till March 2027 would force small aqua farmers to spend nearly Rs. 50,000 per hectare on equipment, creating a collective burden of around Rs. 1,000 crore across two lakh hectares.
Raghuram said the coalition had promised electricity at Rs. 1.50 per unit to all aqua farmers irrespective of aqua and non-aqua zones and also promised lower feed prices, but both commitments remain unfulfilled. He demanded immediate adjustment of the subsidy in electricity bills from June and extension of the benefit to the remaining 12,000 connections. He recalled that during YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s government, 50,800 of 64,000 connections were brought under the aqua zone and nearly Rs. 3,640 crore was provided as power subsidy over five years.
He said aqua farmers are facing an unprecedented crisis due to rising feed costs and falling shrimp prices, forcing them to dump tonnes of shrimp on roads in protest. He questioned what the government achieved through its meetings in Delhi and demanded clarity on the reduction in feed prices.
Raghuram said shrimp prices for 100-count rose from Rs. 245 to Rs. 275 after YS Jagan’s Bhimavaram visit, while tobacco prices increased from Rs. 260 to around Rs. 300 after his Devarapalli visit. He warned that if the Power Factor condition is not withdrawn and subsidies are not implemented, YSRCP will launch a massive agitation across the coastal corridor under YS Jagan’s leadership.
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