The suicide of a Dalit farmer over a land dispute at Pothavaram village in Prakasam district triggered a protest in Darsi town on Sunday.
Darsi Sub-inspector S.Subba Rao said that the farmer, K. Peraiah, had consumed pesticide after an altercation with an ‘upper caste’ group over raising crops in the grazing land in Pothavaram. He was rushed to the Darsi Government Hospital and died there while undergoing treatment. Soon after Peraiah’s death, Dalit bodies staged a protest at the hospital, alleging that the farmer died owing to the delay in the treatment as the doctor on duty was not available.
Dalit Hakula Parirakshana Samiti Prakasam district president Neelam Nagendra Rao and All India Agricultural Workers Union district president K.Anjaneyulu, who led the protest, demanded that stringent action be taken against the doctor.