YCP rule should pay cane farmers bills all over State
Police cruelty led to death of tenant farmer Nanaji
AMARAVATI: TDP National General Secretary Nara Lokesh on Friday asserted that the YSRCP Government’s ruthless policies had led to the death of a sugarcane farmer at Payakaraopet in the Visakhapatnam district.
Lokesh said that tenant farmer Nanaji was taking part in the protests in front of the Thandava Sugar Factory demanding payment of the bills. The police perpetrated their cruelty while trying to disperse the agitating farmers. This had eventually caused the death of the cane farmer.
In a statement here, Lokesh said the YSRCP Government was showing an indifferent attitude towards the farmers who were not getting payments from the NCS and Thandava factories. In the past, the police brutally attacked the cane farmers when they were holding protests for payment of their crores of bills from the NCS sugar factory at Latchayyapeta in Sithanagaram mandal of Vizianagaram district.
Nara Lokesh strongly objected that the Government adopted a similar ruthless policy towards the farmers of Thandava factory as well. Undoubtedly, the death of farmer Nanaji should be considered as a ‘Government murder’. The YCP regime should extend all possible assistance to the family members of the deceased farmer.
Lokesh pointed out that the Thandava factory farmers have been protesting for payment of over Rs. 10.65 Cr by the management. Instead of coming to the rescue of the farmers, the Government was using the police to suppress their protests in a very atrocious manner.
The TDP MLA demanded that the Government should immediately clear all the bills that were due to the sugar cane farmers all over the State. Any further inordinate delay would lead to greater complications. Ever since the YSRCP came to power in the State in 2019, the farmers were getting stuck in deeper losses and debts in Andhra Pradesh.
Nara Lokesh recalled how the non-payment of Rs. 17 Cr of pending bills to the sugarcane farmers of Vizianagaram district led to a prolonged struggle at the NCS factory. When the farmers stepped up their protests, false cases were filed against them by the police to suppress their agitation.
Lokesh said that the intolerant Government slapped notices on those farmers at that time instead of resolving their problems. Was it a crime on the part of the farmers to hold protests for the payment of their long pending bills. The pain and suffering of the farmers was increasing under the YCP rule. If the Government took timely steps to resolve farmers’ issues, they would not come on to the roads.
The TDP MLC recalled how the Government’s ‘harassment’ had caused mental agony to over 80 farmers in Bobbili and Sitanagaram mandals when notices were served on them. Without causing such heartburn, the Government should take proactive measures to help the farmers of Thandava factory in Visakhapatnam district.
