Farmers protest again as official apathy continues in Telangana

In May, in Nirmal district, farmers had staged a rasta-roko on the road protesting the delay in procurement of paddy and tacky arrangements at a paddy procurement centre at Chamanpalli village.

Hyderabad/Mancherial: Farmers in Telangana are spending more time protesting on the roads these days than on their agricultural fields. Stung by the delay in officials ensuring payment for his mango crop that was procured, a farmer in Nennal mandal centre of Mancherial district threatened to kill himself by consuming pesticide during a Prajavani programme on Monday.

Ramadugu Janardhan from Chittapur village in Nennal regretted that he had sold his mango produce to an Indira Kranthi Pathakam (IKP) procurement centre a month ago. However, the price of Rs.1.5 lakh was not paid to him so far.

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He also said the company that purchased the mangoes had quoted a price much lesser than the market causing huge losses for him. Janardhan withdrew his protest only after officials at the Prajavani programme assured to sanction his payment at the earliest. Nennal mandal IKP Assistant Project Manager Vijayalaxmi said steps were being taken to pay the farmer soon. The company had delayed the payment of the cost citing losses.

“We will ensure justice to the farmer,” she said. Around 2,000 farmers produce mangoes in Nennal mandal. While most of them sell the mangoes to traders of Nagpur, Hyderabad and other parts of the country, a few depend on procurement centres run by the government.

Mancherial also witnessed another protest by farmers on Monday when farmers from Hajipur and Luxettipet mandals staged a dharna at IB Chowk against the move to acquire their lands for the proposed National Highway-63 connecting Mancherial-Nizamabad.

These were the latest instances of farmers being forced to protest and take to the streets, sometimes even threatening to take their lives, over the last few months due to the apathy of the official machinery and the State government.

In May, in Nirmal district, farmers had staged a rasta-roko on the road protesting the delay in procurement of paddy and tacky arrangements at a paddy procurement centre at Chamanpalli village.

The same month, farmers staged a dharna at Malkapeta of Konaraopet mandal in Karimnagar in protest against officials’ negligence in purchasing their paddy even after one month of the harvest. In April, farmers in Jangaon had protested when traders began offering Rs.500 to Rs.600 less than the minimum support price.

The farmers threatened to burn their stocks out of sheer frustration, forcing the government machinery to intervene and book cases against traders.

In March, farmers from Mallepally and Pochammavada holding pesticide bottles had protested on the Manthani-Godavarikhani main road near Mallepally, demanding officials to provide water to their standing crops through the SRSP canal in the erstwhile Karimnagar district.

Also in Karimnagar in April, a farmer, Rajesham, succumbed to a heat stroke while waiting for officials to procure his paddy at a procurement centre in Ragampeta village.

He had waited for over a week. In March, unable to supply water to their paddy crop, a few farmers had set their crop on fire in Peddalingapur of Illanthakunta mandal of Rajanna-Sircilla district.

Recently, in May too, farmers burnt paddy on the Hyderabad-Warangal highway and blocked the road for almost an hour, demanding the purchase of their produce at the Gudur Primary Agriculture Credit Society (PACS), where they were forced to wait for 20 days.

As if the protests over water shortage, rain damages, delay in procurement, delay in payments and harassment by traders were not enough, another protest was witnessed late last month when farmers, who after several years were forced to stand in queues in the scorching heat, were told that there was no adequate stock of seeds.

While such scenes were first reported in Jogipet of Sangareddy district, where farmers waiting in front of the Agros Rythu Seva Kendra were told that the stocks of green manure seeds were over, similar scenes were repeated in Nukapalli and Potharam of Mallial mandal in Jagtial as well.