Paddy farmers stage protest seeking release of pending dues

Nagarkurnool: The paddy farmers who were fed up with the Agriculture and Marketing department officials for delay in payment staged a protest in front of the Nagarkurnool District Collector's office on Monday.

The agitating farmers sat in front of the gate of the Collectorate office and raised slogans and demanded the District Collector to come and answer them why the government was delaying the payment to paddy farmers.

"Under the paddy procurement scheme, the government had bought our paddy more than one and half month ago. Initially, the Agriculture minister had promised that our dues would be paid within a week's time.

However, it has been more than 45 days the concerned authorities have heeded to our pleas," said an agitating farmer. The protestors said that they had bought loans to cultivate the crop and they need to repay it.

But as the officials have been continuously delaying releasing their pending dues, the farmers are worried that the interests on debts would increase and they would be pressurised from lenders to repay debts at the earliest.

"Agriculture minister is from our own district and we are surprised why he is delaying to release the pending dues to the farmers of his own district.

Earlier, we were told that he would ensure early release of pending dues, but after procuring the paddy, no one is responding properly," observed the agitators.

They were adamant that they would not leave the Collector's premises until and unless they get a reply on the issue.

The police intervened and tried to pacify the farmers. Later, they relented when they got assurance from the senior officials of the district that their dues would be released soon.