BJP condemns police arrests in Kodangal

Hyderabad: Telangana BJP on Tuesday criticised the State government for leaving farmers in the lurch by not procuring paddy and resorting to indiscriminate arrests, creating panic among villagers in Kodangal Assembly Constituency.

Addressing the media on Tuesday, BJP State Vice-President Chintala Ramachandra Reddy and State General Secretary Dr Kasam Venkateshwarlu strongly objected to taking away lands for the proposed Pharma City against people's consent.

Ramachandra Reddy said farmers in many places across the state are being harassed by not giving tokens in paddy procurement centres. He said, “Wherever we went, the farmers complained about not waiving off their loans, and paddy not procured.”

The former MLA said that earlier, former CM K Chandrasekhar Rao asked farmers not to cultivate superfine varieties of rice. Now, the Congress government wants to give bonuses only to super fine variety of rice. He said the situation in the market yard at Narayankhed is in a bad state and farmers and their families stand guard at the paddy piles at the purchase centres day and night, waiting for the state government to buy the grain. “In desperation, farmers have to sell their paddy to the brokers at Rs 1,700 to Rs 2,000 as against the MSP,” he added.

Dr Venkateswarlu termed that the Congress party, which promised to give People’s Governance, is snatching away the livelihoods of the people who believed and voted for him. He demanded a judicial probe into the incident that happened in the Kodangal constituency on Monday.

The BJP leader charged that attempts are being made to grab land from farmers for pharma companies in Dudyala Mandal of Vikarabad district under Kodangal constituency.

He termed that what had happened in the Kodangal constituency on Monday was not an attack on the officials. “Even though the District Collector publicly announced that he was not attacked, cases were registered against 50 people illegally detained in the villages,” he alleged. He condemned the alleged police harassment, imposing a complete shutdown and suspending the internet services.