Chandrababu Naidu begins fast

Hyderabad : Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister and Telugu Desham Party supremo Chandrababu Naidu began his indefinite hunger strike on Friday demanding financial and logistic support to the “suffering” farmers of the state.

Naidu said the the peasants and artisans had been facing acute survival crisis because of nature’s fury.

He said the loss was huge but the government failed to come to their rescue.

He demanded the state government to pay a compensation of Rs 10,000 per acre to paddy farmers and Rs 15,000 per acre for commercial crops like cotton and tobacco.

Naidu accused Chief Minister, N Kiran Kumar Reddy of neglecting the people and farmers by not solving their problem.

Naidu, also the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, began his fast at the MLA quarters, Adarsh Nagar, near the state Secretariat.

He also demanded that the government must fix Rs 2500 per ton as minimum support price for sugarcane and Rs 4,500 per bale for cotton and revoke ban on cotton exports.