Spurious cotton seeds: Congress, TDP leaders support farmers, demand justice for victims

Pedda Kanjarla (Patancheru): The local Congress and TDP leaders of Patancheru mandal separately expressed their support for the cotton farmers of Pedda Kanjarla village in Patancheru mandal who lost their 45-day-old crop after spraying herbicide due to the alleged spurious cotton seeds sold by one dealer Buchi Reddy of the same village.

The ZPTC member Srikant Goud and Congress leader G Anji Reddy and others visited the damaged crop field of farmer Yadaiah in the village and demanded the government officials to take actions against the accused who conned nearly 60 farmers to purchase the fake seeds by assuring them of the crop would not be affected by any kind of herbicides. But, the farmers are alleging that they came to know that they were cheated by the seeds dealer with the spurious seeds as the crop was damaged after the usage of herbicide to weed control.

The leaders said the farmers who cultivated the crop in 400 acres are much worried about the yielding due to the spurious seeds and the officials have not taken any action even the farmers lost their crop by the duplicate seeds. The government is not paying any attention to the problems of the suffering farmers in the state. If the government does not take any actions against the seller of the spurious cotton seeds and support the farmers for the loss of the crop, there will be protest and fight in a big way, warned the leaders. The Congress leader donated Rs. 5,000 for woman farmer Mutyalamma who was indisposed due to the loss of her crop. Besides the complaint to the MAO and other officials, the victims also staged a dharna on the highway protesting the inaction by the officials.