HYDERABAD: “Ours is a farmer-friendly government and nobody can dispute it,” asserted chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy while defending his government in the state Assembly on the noconfidence motion moved by the Opposition parties over farmers' issues.He said that no other government strove for the welfare of farmers and introduced several welfare schemes than the current Congress government.Defending his government, Kiran Kumar Reddy said that the TDP government led by N Chandrababu Naidu never bothered about farmers during its nine-year tenure from 1995 to 2004.He said that it was the Congress government led by former chief minister late YS Rajasekhara Reddy who implemented free power scheme after assuming power in 2004 as per the promise made earlier.“We spent Rs 28,000 crore towards providing free power to nearly 20 lakh farmers over the past seven years ever since the Congress party came to power.However, it is not sufficient and the government is making all efforts to safeguard the interests of farmers,” he said.He pointed out that the Chandrababu Naidu government has refused to provide free power. The chief minister said that the state government has brought down the interest rate on crop loans to four per cent and now making efforts to provide interest-free loans upto Rs one lakh from next month.“Crop loans are a major problem for farmers forcing them to commit suicide.We have recognised the need and hence decided to provide interest free crop loans. For the current financial year, we provided more than Rs 31,000 crore loans to farmers through banks,” he said.Further, the chief minister claimed that the government has also considered the plight of tenant farmers and has brought out a legislation for their protection through new policy. He said that the Congress government has increased the minimum support price (MSP) from Rs 590 in 2004 to Rs 1,110 in 2011.Speaking on the Jalayagnam projects, Kiran Kumar Reddy said that the government took up several irrigation projects simultaneously to maintain regional balance and created 20 lakh acres of new ayacut after completion of 13 projects.He assured that 49 projects which are in the advanced stages of construction will be completed with Rs 16,000 crore over the next three years on priority basis.“We are awaiting for the Union Cabinet's decision to accord national project status for the Polavaram project. Similarly, all permissions for the Pranahita-Chevella projects are likely to be provided by July next year,” he added.The chief minister said that the state government will provide 15 lakh jobs to unemployed youth in private sector as per the system devised in a scientific manner. “As per the CII estimations, about 30 lakh jobs will be available from 2011-12 to 2014-15 in different sectors. Further, the finance department has cleared proposals for recruitment of 1.05 of 1.16 lakh jobs available in different government departments. All the jobs will be filled in a transparent manner,” he said. He assured that the government is ready to rectify if there are any loopholes in implementation of the government welfare programmes.Kiran Kumar Reddy advised Chandrababu Naidu to verify facts before addressing the House. He said that Naidu misunderstood the report submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) with regard to 2009-10.“The CAG report states that the cost for 46 irrigation projects got escalated by more than Rs 27,000 crore since 1964.But Naidu misunderstood it and claiming that the cost escalation occurred over the past couple of years,” he argued. He maintained that the Congress government has always maintained fiscal discipline over the past seven years when compared to the nine-year rule of TDP government.
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