The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Protesting farmers bring traffic to a halt

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Tuesday, Aug 05, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Protesting farmers bring traffic to a halt

Staff Reporter

Take objection to Agriculture Minister’s comments

Farmers from Siddipet and nearby mandals also take to the streets
Schoolchildren suffer most due to traffic jam on NH-9

Sangareddy: Desperate farmers in Sangareddy and Siddipet divisions of Medak district, who tried all kinds of protests to draw the attention of officials to the fertilizer crunch, once again took to streets on Monday and shouted slogans against the government.

Farmers in Sadasivapet organised a ‘rasta roko’ on National Highway 9, right from morning. Schoolchildren suffered most due to the traffic jam. Efforts of the police and Revenue officials failed as they were in no mood to listen to their promises.

A farmer said that they had been waiting for just one bag of fertilizer for the past two months.

Another farmer, who was found using abusive words towards the local legislator and the Minister for Agriculture said why would they wait for fertilizer in long queues if they had already purchased it.

“I would instead be working in my field,” Hanmanthu pointed out taking a serious note of the Minister’s statement that farmers were buying more in panic.

In an unrelenting mood

Farmers refused to relent till the officials provide them fertilizer.

The local police also failed to convince them as they too failed to keep their earlier promises and kept on postponing the date of distribution of the essential input.

Similar scenes were witnessed in Siddipet where farmers from nearby mandals gathered near Ambedkar Chowk and raised slogans against Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and Minister for Agriculture.

CPI dharna

Karimnagar Staff Reporter adds: CPI district unit leaders staged a dharna in front of the collectorate here demanding fertilizer, diesel and uninterrupted power supply to farmers. Party district secretary M. Venkat Swamy, district party leaders K. Ramgopal Reddy, P. Ilaiah, B. Ashok, G. Laxmi, L. Roop Singh, Chada Prabhakar Reddy, Sadashiva and others participated in the dharna.

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