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.