PRP to launch State-wide stir against price rise

Hyderabad, July 11: (TNN) The Praja Rajyam Party chief and  actor-turned-politician  Chiranjeevi  on Saturday anoounced  that his party would  launch  state-wide agitation programs  from  July 16 against the abnormal  rise in price of essential commodities and the failure of the state  Government  in solving  the day-to-day problems of
people of Andhra Pradesh inc;luding the farming sector.
Addressing the  media at the party office here , Chiranjeevi  said ``it is  unfortunate that   a seasoned politician like  the TDP president Chandrababu  Naidu denounced the  small parties like  PRP and Lok Satta  instead of mounting pressure on the  ruling party to meet the  peoples’ needs .  ``How can  he pass  such a comment  saying that  the small parties in the  State cannot be force to  oppose Congress.  We were polled 17 per cent of total  votes in the recent elections which is an indication that the people are with us. He should have some respect for the parties who had  done reasonably well in  elections,’’ he further added. Commenting   on the plight of farmers  he said `` at the moment  we need  about 17 lakh tons of seeds  but we  have only 14 lakh tons  of
seeds.  It is the  duty of the  Government to bridge the gap and supply the  seeds to  the farmers.  But the Government  doesn’t  seem to bother about this arduous task  of providing the seeds  for farmers in time for the khariff season.’’ He criticized the Chief Minister Rajasekhar Reddy  on his  pleasure trip to Goa while the state is reeling under  drought  and the farmers  are running  from pillar to post in search of seeds.  The Government instead of trying to help the farmers it seemed to be paving the way for the suicide farmers. Regarding the crisis in his own party that many leaders are leaving the  PRP to join either  the Telugu Desam or the Congress he said that he doesn’t see any such crisis in the party.