The Communist Party of India has criticised the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government for taking a decision to fix energy meters to all agricultural power connections.
The decision will throw the YSRCP government out of power in the next elections, if it went ahead with the programme, said party State secretary K. Ramakrishna.
Mr. Ramakrishna, who was on his way to the Gondireddypalli village in Rapthadu Mandal of Anantapur district to show solidarity with the farmers who were protesting the government decision, was arrested by the police near Sri Krishnadevaraya University on Monday. Mr. Ramakrishna gave a call to the farmers in the district to vehemently oppose the fixing of meters.
After attending the Alumni Association meeting on the campus, the CPI leader was scheduled to visit Gondireddypalli, but the police advised him to not go there as that would create a law-and-order problem. While the CPI leaders started for the village from Anantapur, they were chased and arrested at Surya Nagar Circle.
Mr. Ramakrishna said the State government was making a mockery of the democracy by not allowing silent protest against the proposed fixing of meters and criticised Mr. Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for blindly following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s diktat on the fixing of meters. The political parties have all the right to talk to the farmers and raise objections over the government actions, he pointed out.
In Anantapur district, 500 meters were sent by the State government to fix them on a pilot basis to find out if they were functioning well, but the A.P. Ryhtu Sangham, CPI(M) and the CPI have been agitating against it.
The A.P. Rythu Sangham leaders had supported some farmers in Tadipatri Mandal to remove the energy meters (25 of them) and handover them over to the contractor to be given back to the department.
