Political parties and the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) came on a common platform protesting against the State government’s decision to form Farmers Coordination Committees and appealed to make the planned protests in front of the Gram Panchayat offices and Mandal Revenue offices on October 3 a hug success.
The platform was shared by Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, Telugu Desam Party leader Ravula Chandrashekhar Reddy and Revuri Prakash Reddy, Palla Venkat Reddy from the Communist Party of India and TJAC chairman M. Kodandaram, among others.
Mr. Uttam Reddy said the GO 39 issued for creation of Rythu Samanvaya Samithis (Farmers Coordination Committees) must be withdrawn immediately as it was nothing but vesting the power of panchayats in the hands of a group of ruling party activists selected by the government.
Clashes
Mr. Reddy said they were “Rythu Gharshana Samithis” as they would end up creating differences between villagers rather than solving their land issues.
He said the GO was nothing but an insult to elected leaders like sarpanchs and MPTCs. The Government has deliberately not released money meant for panchayats in the last three years and now it plans to give public money to private people who were not answerable.
Accountability
Mr. Kodandaram wondered how can people without any accountability ride over the elected representatives in the villages. He said the committees should be withdrawn at any cost as the government cannot put the land records in the hands of few people who were neither answerable to the people or the law.
He appealed to the people to participate in large numbers in the protest in front of panchayats and mandal offices and send a strong signal to the government that they were not ready to accept undemocratic move of the government. Leaders of other parties aired similar views.
