Tension prevailed at the Lotus Pond residence of YSR Congress president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy here on Saturday as over 300 farmers from Guntur district staged a protest against the destruction of cotton and chilli crops in the land acquired by Saraswati Cements, belonging to the former.
The farmers, led by S. Venkata Rao and N. Brahmam, alleged that the standing crops in about 30 acres were destroyed by about 300 people on October 7. Representatives of the cement company had also attacked several farmers who tried to resist the destruction of standing crops. Slogans demanding Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy’s apologies to farmers for attacking them and compensation for the crop loss suffered, rented the air for about an hour. The protesting farmers included some of those who had been injured in the attack.
Tension mounted when some of them hurled footwear at the house. The police, who reached there in sufficient numbers by that time, scuttled the farmers’ attempts and convinced them to end their protest. No arrests were made as the farmers agreed to retreat after staging a protest for about an hour.
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Speaking to newspersons, Mr. Venkata Rao and Mr. Brahmam said farmers from Chennayapalem and Vemavaram of Machavaram mandal and Thangeda of Dachepalli mandal had cultivated cotton and chilli crops in about 400 acres after talking to the company management’s representatives. The farmers told the management that they be allowed to cultivate crops till the cement factory was set up as the land was lying idle from 2006-07, when it was acquired.
In all, about 1,534 acres of land (613.476 hectares) was acquired from 495 small and marginal farmers since 2006 for setting up the cement company.