Give us urea and land passbooks, demand farmers

Kamepalli (Khammam): Farmers under the banner of the Telangana Rythu Sangham staged a protest and dharna at the Tahsildar and Agriculture Department offices in Kamepalli mandal on Thursday, demanding timely supply of urea and issuance of Pattadar passbooks to all cultivators, including those without formal land records.

Led by district secretary Bonthu Rambabu and vice-president Duggi Krishna, the protesters alleged that despite cultivating lands for generations, several farmers in Kamepalli still haven’t received Pattadar passbooks, especially those tilling assigned and government lands. They urged the authorities to regularise such lands under the Bhu Bharati Act and issue official documentation to avoid further hardship.

The leaders pointed out that farmers with no official land records are being denied urea supply, which is vital during the ongoing cropping season. They demanded that urea be made available based on Aadhaar verification, rather than rigid reliance on land records.

Rambabu accused the Central government of deliberately creating a urea shortage by failing to import urea on time and halting production at local fertiliser units such as Ramagundam Fertilizers. He said this has caused severe disruption to farmers across Telangana.

The protestors also criticised the Union Government’s recent move to remove the 11% import duty on foreign cotton, allowing 4 million bales of American cotton into the Indian market. This, they argued, has led to a sharp decline in domestic cotton prices, pushing local farmers into financial distress. The union demanded that the import duty be reinstated immediately to protect the interests of Indian cotton growers.

They also appealed to revenue officials to review and remove ineligible lands from the prohibited list; issue passbooks to current cultivators based on ‘Saada Bainama’ (unregistered sale agreements); and recognise generational cultivators for documentation purposes.

A memorandum outlining these demands was submitted to the Deputy Tahsildar. The protest saw the participation of state committee member Chintanippu Chalapathi Rao, senior district leaders Injam Nagabhushanam, CITU district leader Badavath Srinivasa Rao, Kamepalli Rythu Sangham president Rayala Satyanarayana, and others.