PM likely to visit AP in July

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to visit the state in the first week of July to assess the situation on the agricultural front in view of the farmers' suicides.

It would be Manmohan Singh's first visit to Andhra Pradesh after becoming the Prime Minister.

Disclosing this at the district collectors' conference on Saturday, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy said that he personally requested him to visit one or two districts where the problem of the farmers' suicides is very acute.

The chief minister may also utilise the occasion to invite the Prime Minister to contest from the state.

The Prime Minister's likely visit assumes importance in the wake of the Centre's proposal to announce several sops to the agriculture sector.

The state government has been requesting the Centre to provide special financial relief to address the farmers' distress and also ensure the implementation of poll promises like completing all the pending irrigation projects in five years, free power to farmers among others.