The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has organised protest demonstrations in the name of “Rythu Deeksha” in all Assembly Constituency headquarters across the State except in Hyderabad on Saturday to press for immediate relief to the farming community in distress following crop failure/withering to a large extent.
Several senior leaders of the party, including former ministers, MLAs, MPs and former legislators led the protests demanding ₹25,000 per acre compensation to all farmers who lost their crop due to lack of water for irrigation, ₹500 per quintal bonus to paddy and maize and ₹20 lakh each ex-gratia to farmers who ended their lives in distress.
At Sangareddy, former minister T. Harish Rao said no ruling party leader could find time so far to console even one of over 200 farmers who had ended their lives since December 7 last or could take out some time to infuse confidence among the farming community in distress following crop failure/withering due to lack of water for irrigation. He pointed out that promises of ₹2 lakh each loan waiver to farmers, enhanced rythu bharosa of ₹15,000 per acre among many others were yet to be fulfilled.
Speaking at Suryapet, another former minister G. Jagadish Reddy alleged that instead of focusing on governance and addressing farmers and people’s problems Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy was sparing all his time for conspiracies against the Opposition party and the silence of the government on crop loss due to lack of water for irrigation was clear indication of it.
Working president of the party K. T. Rama Rao said at Sircilla that the Congress government had pushed the farming sector into crisis within four months of coming to power and citing election code as the reason for denying even the promised benefits to farmers. He sought to know where did the ₹7,000 crore kept aside by the previous BRS government for Rythu Bandhu go.
At Kallur and Wyra in Khammam district, MPs Vaddiraju Ravichandra and Nama Nageswara Rao alleged that grave injustice was being done to the farming community in the Congress regime. Former MLAs Sandra Venkata Veeraiah and Banoth Madanlal led the protests at Kallur and Wyra.
Further, MP M. Kavitha and former MLA Peddi Sudarshan Reddy led the protest at Narsampet, former Chief Whip Dasyam Vinay Bhaskar at Wardhannapet, MLA Pocharam Srinivas Reddy at Banswada, MLA Palla Rajeshwar Reddy and Zilla Parishad Chairperson Bhagyalaxmi at Jangaon, former MLA S. Rajender Reddy at Narayanpet, former minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao at Palakurthi, MLA B. Krishna Mohan Reddy at Gadwal, K. Bhupal Reddy at Nalgonda and Ch. Lingaiah at Nakrekal.
