Palpable tension prevailed in the town on Saturday, a day after violent protests by aggrieved chilli farmers rocked the agriculture market yard here, as the police enforced prohibitory orders under Section 144 of Cr.PC under the Khammam police commissionerate limits.
The police on Saturday foiled attempts by the cadres of the Opposition parties including the TDP and the Left parties to take out rallies demanding immediate measures to buy the entire chilli produce of farmers at a remunerative price.
As many 271 cadres of the Opposition parties were taken into preventive custody under Section 151 Cr PC and let off later.
TDP Polit Bureau member Nama Nageswara Rao, Sattupalli MLA S Venkata Veeraiah, TDP district president T Brahmaiah, CPI State secretary Chada Venkat Reddy and CPI (M) State committee member Nunna Nageswara Rao were among those detained by the police at separate places here.
Meanwhile, the Left parties – CPI (M), CPI and CPI (ML-New Democracy) have called for a protest on Sunday in all the mandal headquarters in the district and a joint stir in Khammam town on May 2 to highlight the issues of chilli farmers.
Announcing this at a joint press conference with the district leaders of other Left parties, the CPI (M) State secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram said demonstrations will be organised in all the mandal headquarters on Sunday in protest against the alleged failure of the government to alleviate the sufferings of chilli growers.
The joint agitation is intended to register protest against the government's repressive measures against the peaceful protests by the Opposition parties on the ordeals of distraught chilli farmers.
He alleged that the TRS government was hell-bent on suppressing democratic protests by the Opposition parties on chilli farmers' issues.
The persons at the helm of affairs are trying to attribute the Friday's incident at Khammam market yard to the Opposition parties in a baseless manner in a bid to cover up their failure to provide succour to the crisis-hit chilli growers, he charged.