Farmers stage dharna

Chagallu: Farmers under the auspices of AP Rythu Sangham staged a dharna at paddy purchase centre here on Saturday, demanding that the officials over failure to purchase the paddy. They grilled Tahsildar and the centre organizers for not lifting the paddy from the farmers.

The protesters questioned the officials on inaction to supply gunny bags to the farmers to initiate the paddy purchase procedure. Addressing the protesters, the AP Rythu Sangham district secretary K Srinivas alleged that the paddy purchase centres had been set up for just name sake and they turned the Agencies for millers. He criticized the government for not keeping gunny bags ready at the purchase centres.

He demanded the government to offer a bonus of Rs 500 on quintal of paddy purchased. It was unfortunate that the government was not acting fast to lift the paddy even though the farmers were ready with harvest for the past 20 days. He demanded that the government pay the price immediately.