Farmers who reached the Collector’s Office here on Friday for filing nominations for the Lok Sabha constituency, in protest against the alleged indifference of the Central and the State governments in announcing the minimum support price for red jowar and turmeric, later in the evening staged a dharna against the alleged refusal by the authorities to accept their papers.
They accused the officers of making them sit hours together after giving tokens and in the end sent away without accepting nominations on the grounds that the time was over for the day. “When sitting MP K. Kavitha along with ministers Prasanth Reddy and K. Eswar arrived to file papers the authorities asked us to leave the Collector’s chamber and to return after a few minutes. We sat outside for one-and-a-half hour. When went into the chamber later the authorities said time was over,” said S. Raja Reddy, a farmer from Raikal in Jagtial district.
To file on Monday
Some 40 farmers from Morthad and Kammarpally in the district and Jagtial district came to the Collector’s Office to submit nominations on Friday. “We will come in a large number to file papers on Monday, the last date for filing papers,” said P. Praveen Kumar from Kammarpally.
Alleging that the police threatened them in the name of election code of conduct, Mr. Raja Reddy expressed doubts whether the authorities would accept their nominations or flatly refuse them.
Collector Denies
Denying the allegations of farmers Collector M. Rama Mohan Rao said that the nominations were accepted from farmers who came within the time and all those who arrived after 3 p.m. were not allowed. There was no truth in the allegation that nominations from farmers were not accepted.
