'Positive change in villages'

With farmer-friendly initiatives forming the core agenda of the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh, which completed 100 days in office on Saturday, the ruling party leaders spoke of heralding a 'second green revolution' in the state with an unwavering commitment to improve agriculture sector.

"We have made sincere efforts to revive agriculture sector which suffered neglect during the decade-long rule of TDP. There is a clear and positive change visible in villages because of several initiatives taken by the government," ministers N Raghuveera Reddy (agriculture), D Prasada Rao (revenue), K Lakshmi Narayana (co-operation) and Mareppa (lift irrigation and rain-shadow area development) told reporters here.

Outlining the government's initiatives so far, they said that the supply of free power to farmers, waiver of power dues, moratorium on repayment of private loans, compensation package for farmers in distress, time-bound action plan for implementation of key irrigation and substantial increase in the flow of institutional credit to farmers were some of the major decisions taken to improve the living conditions of farmers.

Asked about the continuing suicides by farmers despite announcement of a bail-out package, the ministers termed the phenomenon as an 'accumulated distress' as a result of years of neglect by the previous government.

"Now, there is a discernible change in rural areas. The farmers are happy about the relief measures undertaken by the government," they said.