Protests against the Thursday’s incident in which the police handcuffed ten farmers while producing the latter in the court in Khammam spilled over to various parts of the district, including Nizamabad, Warangal and Adilabad districts, with activists of farmers’ organisations and Opposition parties taking to the streets denouncing the “high-handed act.”
Activists of CPI (M) and Telangana Rythu Sangham took out padayatras from Siripuram to Madhira and Mustikuntla to Bonakal in Khammam division resenting the use of handcuffs against aggrieved farmers.
Activists of the Congress party and its frontal organisations staged a demonstration at Mayuri centre here on Friday afternoon in protesting the “inhuman treatment” meted out to chilli farmers.
In Bhadradri-Kothagudem district, activists of the TDP, Congress and other Opposition parties staged a rasta roko in Tekulapalli mandal headquarters. Opposition parties organised similar protest demonstrations elsewhere in the district demanding withdrawal of cases registered against the ten chilli farmers in connection with last month’s incident of rioting at Khammam market yard.
In Nizamabad, MLC and All India Mahila Congress general secretary Akula Lalitha alleged that the Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was very much aware of police handcuffing the chilli farmers and they acted with his prior permission.
Addressing a dharna camp organised by the District Congress Committee here on Friday, she said Mr. Rao was intolerant of agitations and therefore gave a free hand to the police to suppress them using force.
DCC president Taher Bin Hamdan said the TRS was unleashing terror in the State.
The party cadres held similar dharnas across the district. They later burnt the effigy of the Chief Minister.
In Warangal, BJP activists staged a protest demonstration and burnt the effigy of the State government on Friday. Urban party president R. Padma said no State prospered where farmers were ill-treated.
Meanwhile, Congress and BJP staged protests separately in Adilabad against handcuffing chilli farmers. While the Congress accused the Centre and the State government of high-handedness, the BJP accused the TS government of failure in addressing farmers’ problems.
