Andhra Pradesh - Anantapur   

TDP vows to fight for input subsidy to ryots

By Our Staff Reporter

ANANTAPUR, OCT. 15. The district unit of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) staged a day-long dharna in front of the Collectorate here on Friday demanding sanction of input subsidy and allocation of 10 tmc ft water to Penna Ahobilam Balancing Reservoir. All the offices in the Collectorate complex were not allowed to function by the TDP leaders as they sent out all the employees.

Leaders of the party assured the farming community that they would fight with the Government until they were given input subsidy. They alleged that the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, had failed to fulfil any of his promises made to the farmers before the elections and after assuming power.

A group of leaders went inside the Collectorate around 11.30 am and sent the employees out. Police refused to let the TDP leaders in initially, but had to relent after the latter raised slogans in protest. Traffic was diverted on the busy collectorate road due to the dharna. The protest programme was held from 11 am to 5 pm.

The TDP leaders alleged that the Congress leaders were citing the budgetary reasons for denial of input subsidy to the farmers who were not covered under the crop insurance scheme and those who had received nominal insurance benefit against the groundnut crop loss suffered in kharif 2003 season only to mislead and deceive the farming community.

Hopes belied

They stated that the farming community had voted Congress to power with high hopes but all their hopes were belied by the party once it assumed power. They pointed out that the Congress leaders used to criticise the TDP Government on artificial rain and sought to know what the Congress Government did. But for depression in the Bay of Bengal regularly the people would have left the villages by now, they observed.

The achievement of the Congress Government in five months was earning the discontent among all sections of society, they noted. The Congress had come to power by misleading the people on the development done by the TDP Government, they said.

The district president of the TDP, V. Hanumantharaya Chowdary, legislators, P. Keshav, B.C. Govindappa and P. Ranganayakulu, former minister, N. Kistappa, former MPs, K.M. Saifullah, K. Srinivasulu and B.K. Parthasarathi, former legislators, P. Shamanthakamani and P. Raghunatha Reddy, and the incharge ZP Chairperson, C. Obi Reddy, were among others who spoke.

Effigies burnt

A few tense moments prevailed towards the end of dharna when the police prevented the TDP leaders' effort to burn the effigies of the Chief Minister and others in front of the main entrance of the collectorate. They burnt the effigies of the Chief Minister, the Ministers, J.C. Diwakar Reddy and N. Raghuveera Reddy, and the Anantapur MP, A. Venkatarami Reddy, later in front of the OTRI premises adjacent to the Collectorate.

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TDP vows to fight for input subsidy to ryots

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