TDP demands relief to chilli farmers

​Khammam: Demanding support price for chilli, the Telugu Desam cadres led by Sathupally MLA and Telangana State general secretary Sandra Venkata Veeraiah staged a dharna here on Tuesday. Speaking to media, Sandra criticised the State government for its failure to rescue the chilli growers who incurred huge losses due to price fall.

“The State government is more interested in trumpeting its free fertiliser scheme rather than the present issues faced by the farmers. The government is spending crores of rupees on advertisements about providing Rs 4,000 per acre for fertilisers next year. On the other hand, farmers setting their produce ablaze as they failed to get even input costs,” Sandra said.

As if this was not enough, farmers were not getting space to store their produce in the cold storages, he said, adding that the TRS government which compares each and everything with that of happenings in Andhra Pradesh should learn from the neighbouring State where the government was providing a support price of Rs 8,000 per quintal.

Sandra criticised the TRS government for not taking the all-party delegation to Delhi to exert pressure on the Centre to start purchase of chilli through agencies such as Markfed.

Stating that TDP welcomes the State’s decision to provide free fertilisers to farmers, he demanded the government to compensate the chilli farmers who sold their produce for a low price to the middlemen.

The government turned a blind eye when the middlemen were exploiting the farmers, he alleged. He demanded the government to announce a minimum support price of Rs 10,000 per quintal and also implement free fertiliser scheme from this year itself as the cultivators were in dire straits.

Later, the leaders submitted a memorandum to the District Collector DS Lokesh Kumar. TDP district president Tulluri Brahmaiah, senior leaders Vasireddy Ramanatham, MB Swarna Kumari and Maloth Ramdas Naik were among others present.