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Stir against paddy cultivation: Telangana Congress chief held for bid to gherao CM’s farmhouse
On Sunday, Reddy had announced that Congress would organise a “Rachabanda” (open forum) programme at the chief minister’s farmhouse at Erravelli village to expose the latter’s double standards on the cultivation of paddy during the Rabi season.
Hyderabad police on Monday arrested Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president and parliamentarian A Revanth Reddy after he tried to lead a delegation of party leaders to Erravelli village in Siddipet district to lay siege to the farmhouse of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, officials said. The leaders were detained for three hours before being let off in the evening, the officials added.
On Sunday, Reddy had announced that Congress would organise a “Rachabanda” (open forum) programme at the chief minister’s farmhouse at Erravelli village to expose the latter’s double standards on the cultivation of paddy during the Rabi season.
He alleged that KCR was cultivating paddy in 150 acres of his farmhouse while asking the farmers of the state not to raise paddy in their fields during the Rabi season on the pretext that the Centre refused to buy.
This lead to the police gathering in large numbers at Reddy’s Jubilee Hills residence Sunday night and keeping under house arrest. They took him into custody soon after he came out to proceed to Erravelli at around 2 pm. Along with the PCC chief, the police arrested several other Congress leaders, including PCC vice-president Mallu Ravi, and took them to Amberpet police station, the police said.
Those kept in house arrest on Monday morning included former MPs V Hanumantha Rao and Madhu Yashki, former ministers D Sridhar Babu, Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Md Shabbir Ali and Telangana Mahila Congress president Sunitha Rao.
Speaking to media at the Amberpet police station, the PCC chief said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government had kept the farmers in a state of uncertainty for the last three months.
“Many farmers committed suicide due to the inability of the state government in purchasing paddy during the Kharif season. Now, the chief minister tells them not to raise paddy during the Rabi, stating that his government won’t procure paddy in the season. On the other hand, KCR himself is cultivating paddy in 150 acres,” he said.
Stating that he wanted to show to the media how KCR was practising double standards, Reddy wondered whether Erravelli was a prohibited area. “Why were we prevented from going to the village? Is the chief minister afraid of being exposed?” he asked.
The PCC chief vowed to go ahead with the Rachabanda programme at any cost even at a later date. He accused both the TRS government in the state and the BJP government at the Centre of cheating the farmers.
Meanwhile, Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party president Bandi Sanjay staged a six-hour-long Deeksha at the state BJP head office in Hyderabad in protest against the indifferent attitude of the Telangana government in filling up job vacancies for the last seven years.
Sanjay told reporters that the BJP would step up agitation and stall the state assembly sessions if the TRS government did not release the job notifications by the first week of January.
He described KCR as “inhuman”, as there was no response from the government despite several suicides by the unemployed youth. “We never expected that we would have to take up fasting demanding recruitments in separate Telangana state,” Sanjay said.
Nizamabad MP Dharmapuri Arvind, Huzurabad MLA Eatala Rajender and several other BJP leaders spoke at the Deeksha programme.
Reacting strongly to the agitations by the Congress and the BJP, senior TRS leaders and state animal husbandry minister Talasani Srinivasa Yadav said the opposition parties were craving cheap publicity by taking up meaningless protests.
“They have no other business except making false allegations against the chief minister. The Telangana has state achieved remarkable progress in the last seven years. Agriculture has grown by leaps and bounds during the KCR regime. It is the Centre which has betrayed the state by refusing to buy paddy,” Yadav alleged.
On the unemployment issue, the minister said the TRS had filled up 130,000 vacancies in the last seven years and would be issuing notification for filling up of another 60,000 vacancies shortly.
