Telugu Desam Party Telangana State unit has demanded that the State government cancel the cases registered against farmers agitating for minimum support price for their produce in Khammam market yard.
The government should offer an apology to farmers who were handcuffed and sent to prison when they staged a protest seeking support prices for chillies, they said. Stringent action should be initiated against TRS leaders, including elected representatives, who directed the police to arrest the farmers, they added.
A delegation of the TDP-TS leaders led by Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy met Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan at the Raj Bhavan here on Thursday. He submitted a memorandum on the oppressive measures and “anti-people policies” of the State government causing inconvenience to farmers, workers, unemployed youth, students and other sections.
They explained how the Government had suspended lower rung police officials, shielding senior party leaders, after people across the State opposed the arrest of farmers and sought the intervention of the Governor on the issue.
They lamented that the prices of chilli, turmeric, redgram and other crops crashed in the past few months resulting in severe loss to the farmers.
The Government was, however, yet to come out of its “deep slumber” and take preventive steps to ensure that the rabi produce is procured on time. As against the requirement of 3,076 procurement centres for paddy, the Government has so far opened only 537 indicating its apathy towards ryots. The TDP-TS leaders recalled that the party MLAs A. Revanth Reddy and S. Venkata Veeraiah were suspended from the Assembly and not allowed to participate in the subsequent proceedings. The Governor, as guardian of Constitution, should take steps to restore the democratic rights of TDP members.
