Committee set up to rein in aqua syndicates: YS Jagan Mohan Reddy

VIJAYAWADA: Acting on complaints of aqua farmers and farmers’ associations, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has constituted a high-level committee with ministers and senior IAS officers to look into the exploitation of trader syndicates.

The committee comprises Minister for Energy Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy, Minister for Education Botcha Satyanarayana, Minister for Animal Husbandry Seediri Appalaraju, Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma, Special Chief Secretary (Environment and Forest) Neerabh Kumar Prasad, Special CS (Animal Husbandry and Fisheries) Poonam Malakondaiah and Special CS (Energy) K Vijayanand. Fisheries Commissioner K Kannababu is the member-convener of the committee.

Expressing anger over the trader syndicates exploiting aqua farmers, the Chief Minister on Saturday directed the committee to look into the complaints and submit a report within a week. “The government will not keep quiet if aqua farmers are exploited by trader syndicates,” he asserted.

It is a serious matter that the syndicates have been exploiting aqua farmers and causing loss to them though the government enacted special laws to protect their interests, he said. Earlier, representatives of aquaculture farmers met Jagan and complained that traders, who formed themselves into syndicates, were quoting low prices for aqua products.