Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

Insurance: ryots vent ire on officials

By Our Staff Reporter

ANANTAPUR JULY 14. Discontent among the farming community over the raw deal meted out to them in the settlement of crop insurance claims for the crop loss suffered in kharif-2002 came out in the open at several places in the district today. They staged dharnas, rasta rokos and even attacked offices and officials.

According to information, hundreds of farmers led by the Congress, BJP and second rung leaders of TDP took out a rally in Gorantla and forced closure of the commercial establishments. They partially ransacked three hotels and manhandled one hotel owner who was adamant.

The gathering proceeded to the MRO's office and laid siege to it. The leaders of the farmers alleged that the MRO had sent wrong reports over the crop loss denying them the insurance benefit. The MRO ran inside when a section of the farmers started throwing stones and chappals. They even placed thorny tree branches across the office doors.

The mob dragged and severely beaten up the village secretary

Shankarappa alleging that he was the main culprit in denying them the insurance benefit. The SI, Sainath, went to his rescue and in the process suffered injuries in stone throwing. The farmers also damaged the main door of the office by throwing boulders on it.

The former MLA, P. Ravindra Reddy and Shankar Reddy of the Congress, Nagaraju, and Raja Reddy of the BJP and Muneeswarappa, Chakre Naik and Nidimamidappa of the TDP challenged the police to arrest them. The farmers were pacified by an assurance from the deputy collector, Raghunath, who reached there, that some sort of compensation would be worked out for them. They warned of intensifying the agitation if justice was not done in 48 hours.

Rasta rokos were held in several villages along side the NH-7, Gorantal-Hindupur road and Gorantla-Kadiri road by placing boulders across in protest against not getting any insurance benefit. The Penukonda DSP, Kannaji Rao, and the Superintendent of Police, Anil Kumar, also visited Gorantla to take stock of the situation.

The farmers also staged dharnas in the mandal headquarters at Lepakshi, Tanakallu and Gandlapenta against not getting any insurance benefit. Of the 63 mandals in the district, 26 did not get any benefit. A majority of the 37 mandals which had received insurance had only nominal benefit.

Meanwhile, the Congress also staged a dharna in front of the market yard at Hindupur protesting the short supply of maize seed by the government. Farmers belonging to Hindupur, Lepakshi, Parigi and Chilamattur gathered there for the seed as the areas received some rainfall during the last two days.

The market yard officials spoke to the Joint Director of Agriculture and the District Collector and got an additional allocations of 13 tonnes of maize seed to the four mandals. The farmers were led by the Hindupur MPP, Nanjunda Reddy, the Hindupur ZPTC member, Thippanna, and the INTUC leader, Amanulla Khan.

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