All India Kisan Mazdoor Sangh State secretary V. Prabhakar has criticized the government for arresting and shifting farmers and functionaries of AIKMS and T-JAC for staging a protest demanding the release of water in the SRSP main (Kakatiya) canal for paddy transplantation in the ayacut.
Talking to The Hindu over phone from Sarangapur police station in Nirmal district where the arrested were detained on Thursday, he said that they were taken in custody at Pochampad, taken to Nirmal and later to Sarangapur. Farmers were arrested at different places preventing them from coming to Pochampad, he said. He said that the arrests were undemocratic and unlawful. as the government was unleashing terror on farmers when they asked the release of one tmcf water for paddy transplantation. He alleged that Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao had illegally diverted 13 tmcf water to Mid Manair from Singur via Nizam Sagar and SRSP for the benefit of Siddipet.
“Government is using oppressive measures against farmers for demanding the allocation of Singur water exclusively for the erstwhile undivided district and for the immediate release of SRSP water,” he said. CPI (ML – New Democracy) leaders Devaram, Ramakrishna and T-JAC leader Bhaskar were among those who were arrested at Pochampad.
