Telangana: Farmers continue protests for loan waiver, water

Farmers continued to hit the streets in several areas in the State raising basic issues, including water for their crops.

Hyderabad: Farmers continued to hit the streets in several areas in the State raising basic issues, including water for their crops.

On Thursday, while farmers in Metpally and Medipally in Jagtial staged protests over the State government’s failure in implementation of the crop loan waiver, farmers in Nalgonda held demonstrations demanding water supply for their crops. The protests at Metpally and Medipally saw the ryots demanding that the State government waive all crop loans without imposing any conditions. Farmers from surrounding villages also staged a rasta roko near the old bus stand in Metpally town forcing vehicular traffic on National Highway 63 to a standstill for a while.

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Similarly, farmers under the aegis of Medipally mandal Reddy Sangam staged a dharna and rasta roko on NH 63 in Medipally mandal headquarters. They raised slogans against the State government and Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy. The Congress government, which promised to waive all crop loans during the elections, changed its voice after coming to power and was putting conditions if the farmers wanted the waiver, they said, adding that the government was trying to wash off its hands from its promise by waiving off crop loans of just a few farmers.

The agitating farmers demanded that government to waive all crop loans up to Rs.2 lakh without imposing any conditions, provide Rs.15,000 as Rythu Bharosa financial assistance per acre of land and to provide the promised bonus of Rs.500 to normal variety paddy too. They wanted the government to conduct a door-to-door survey over crop loan waiver scheme implementation and accordingly deposit the amount in their bank accounts. They withdrew their protests after Revenue and police officials assured to take their demands to the notice of the State government.

In Nalgonda, farmers from Kukkadam, Madugulapally, Indugula and Agamothukur, who have been staging protests for want of water since the last few days in different villages came together on Thursday to stage a protest at Kukkadam and raised slogans against the government. The farmers from the constituencies of Miryalguda, Nalgonda and Nagarjuna Sagar have been pleading with officials to ensure supply of sufficient water but their appeals were not being considered, they said.

Most of these villages are in the tail end areas and get water through the SLBC flood flow canal. Farmers in over 80,000 acres of the ayacut are dependent on the supply of water through the canal, they said, adding that since the last few days, they were complaining to officials that farmers in the upstream areas of the canal were drawing excess water illegally by operating motors. As a result, those in the tail end areas were not getting any supply.

The farmers also said unless the water supply was ensured through the canal, the recharging process of groundwater would also get affected. All these would eventually damage the standing crops, they rued.