Expressing grave concern over the unabated suicide of farmers in the district, the CPI (M) district committee has urged the administration to provide relief to farmers.
A delegation of the party leaders, headed by district committee secretary P. Sudarshan Rao, met Joint Collector M.M. Naik here on Monday seeking immediate relief measures to mitigate the sufferings of farmers. The delegation apprised Mr. Naik, who is the in-charge Collector, of the agonising plight of farmers.
Referring to the just-concluded field survey conducted by three teams, comprising party leaders and representatives of farmers' associations to assess the impact of drought conditions in the district, Mr. Sudarshan lamented that cotton, paddy, chilli, maize, and red gram crops were damaged in about four lakh acres in the entire district.
“Factors such as adverse weather conditions and long hours of power cuts imposed by the APTransco officials during the ‘Sakala Janula Samme' have led to failure of crops,” he pointed out and deplored that farmers could not get adequate water despite availability of surplus water in Nagarjunasagar project.
A total of ten tenant farmers committed suicide unable to bear crop loss in the district so far, he said and sought sanction of Rs. 3-lakh ex gratia each to the bereaved families of the deceased farmers.
Demands
Some of the demands put forth by the delegation include declaration of all the 46 mandals in the district drought-hit areas, adequate compensation to the distressed farmers, waiver of crop loans, repairs and replacement of electricity transformers, and supply of adequate electricity and water for agriculture fields.
The Joint Collector reportedly assured the delegation of representing the matter to the government for appropriate action.
The delegation comprised CPI (M) district secretariat members N. Nageswara Rao, B. Ravi Kumar and P. Venkateswara Rao.
