Ryots’ meet for Central policy on debt relief

Rythu Rakshana Yatra and Raithanga Samara Bheri will be organised tomorrow

A Central policy for providing relief to debt-ridden farmers on a permanent basis will be the primary demand of the national level farmers convention, ‘Raithanga Samara Bheri,’(farmers’ battle bugle) to be held here on Sunday, former Agriculture Minister Vadde Sobhanadreeswara Rao, has said.

Addressing the media here on Friday, Mr. Rao who is also the chairman of the Raithanga Rakshana Vedika organising the convention, said the conference would highlight the aspirations of the farmers including creation of a permanent farm loan relief commission on the lines of the one in Kerala and guarantee of remunerative rates for their produce. The convention would also articulate the opposition of the farmers to Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnerships (RCEP) and forceful land acquisition.

Rally planned

Mr. Rao said that former Supreme Court Judge Justice Venkate Gopala Gowda, former IAS officer E.A.S.Sarma, founder of Swaraj Abhiyan and Jai Kisan Andolan Yogendra Yadav and several other stalwarts would address the meeting to be held in the Siddhartha Auditorium at 10.30 a.m. The Rythu Rakshana Yatra, a farmers rally planned on the occasion, will be flagged off at Chillakallu on the border of AP at 8 a.m. and it would culminate in the convention venue. The yatra would continue as Kisan Mukthi Yatra in Anantapur and Chittoor districts the next day, Mr Rao said.