Farmers of Mallapur and Metpally mandals, who have been agitating demanding the revival of the Nizam sugar factory (now called Nizam Deccan Sugars Limited) at Muthyampeta village of Mallapur mandal, launched a non-cooperation movement of not paying any kind of taxes to the State government, including the electricity bills.
A decision to this effect was taken by the farmers of the region in general and the sugarcane growing farmers in particular few days. Initially, the non-cooperation movement started in Muthyampeta village and later spread to Dharmaram, Chittapur and Vempeta villages. On Tuesday, the villagers of Ibrahimpatnam mandal have decided to participate in the non-cooperation movement by not paying any taxes till the revival of the Nizam Sugar Factory.
Drumming-up support
Cutting across party lines, all the villagers, including the elected representatives belonging to ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti, were passing the resolutions to participate in the non-cooperation movement and announcing through “tom-tom” instructing the villagers not to pay any taxes such water, property, revenue and electricity bills, among others. They even threatened to spread the non-cooperation movement to all the mandals of the region in a phased manner.
The Nizam Sugar Factory was suddenly closed down on December 22, 2014 leaving both the labour and sugarcane farmers in the lurch. After efforts to bring pressure on leaders to have the sugar factory reopened failed, the sugarcane growing farmers and others launched relay hunger strike since 35 days at Metpally mandal headquarters. The farmers had also tried obstruct the convoy of Nizamabad MP Kavitha last month in an effort to make her to listen to their woes. When the convoy did not stop, the farmers gave a call for Metpally bandh call in protest against the attitude of the MP.
Alluri Mahender Reddy, a farmer who is agitating for the revival of the sugar factory, said that they were forced to launch non-cooperation movement as the government was not listening to their demand.
‘Promise not kept’
“The TRS government promised to revive the Nizam Sugar Factory within 100 days after attaining power in 2014 elections. Instead it shut down the factory within six months after coming to power,” he said.
“We are demanding that the government reopen the factory by itself or or through a private agency for the benefit of farming community and workforce. If it delays the process, we will force the elected representatives of local bodies to resign their posts and will not allow the MLAs and MPs to enter the villages,” he warned.
