The Congress party has slammed the Central and State governments for wreaking havoc on the farm sector by adopting anti-farmer measures in the name of reforms.
The party led by Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president S. Sailajanath observed ‘Kisan Adhikar Divas’ on Saturday to mark the death anniversary of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and also the birth anniversary of former Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Patel. Wearing the traditional ‘Gandhi cap’, he led a massive demonstration near MCT office along with AICC member K. Prameelamma, Youth Congress president Rakesh Reddy and PCC general secretary D. Rambhupal Reddy.
Mr. Sailajanath called the ‘dark bills’ passed by the Centre as having the potential to ‘disempower’ the farmers by abolition of minimum support price and by doing away with ‘mandis’ and state procurement. “The party will back the farmers’ agitation raging across the country through this satyagraha,” he said. He also flayed Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for attempting to install smart meters to agricultural connections, which he said, could sound the death-knell for farming.
Mr. Rambhupal Reddy said the bills were aimed at strengthening the hands of corporate lobbyists and letting down the farmers. “After a hard cropping season, the farmers will face a bleak future at the stage of trade, price mechanism and procurement, thanks to the ‘one-sided’ bills”, he fumed. He also felt that the opined that the individual farmers would eventually lose the game with corporate giants in the absence of a ‘level playing field’.
