Now Kodandaram to agitate on behalf of farmers

HYDERABAD: After cornering the State government on its alleged failure in creating employment opportunities to the unemployed youth as per 2014 poll promise, the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) headed by M Kodandaram is all set to undertake another agitation, this time exclusively on issues relating to farmers.

The TJAC has decided to undertake Rythu Yatra in a phased manner touching all villages in the State so as to list out the problems being faced by farmers in the State.

As part of this, a State level workshop was organised here on Sunday for all the TJAC members from various districts and mandals on the problems being faced by farmers in the State. During the workshop, Kodandaram made a power-point presentation to the participants on issues such as lack of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the agriculture produce, lack of marketing facilities for the produce, loan burden, spurious seeds and harassment by money lenders.

“Agriculture sector in the State is in severe crisis. As many as 3,400 farmers committed suicide after formation of the new State. The State government is not taking any steps to address the problems being faced by farmers,” the TJAC chairman said, while addressing the workshop.

According to him, the TJAC members in each district will undertake Rythu Yatra to know the problems being faced by ryots in their respective mandal and district. Based on the feedback they get from farmers, the TJAC will chalk out an action plan to take up issues concerning ryots.

“We will hold another workshop on agrarian crisis in Hyderabad in the first week of January. During the programme, TJAC will release a charter of demands asking the government to come to the rescue of farmers. After that we will organise different forms of protests to exert pressure on the government to implement policies helpful to the farmers,” Kodandaram said.

Taking strong exception to the land acquisition process being adopted by the government to procure the required lands for various projects in the State, the TJAC chairman said during their proposed agitation on issues relating to farmers, the organisation will also focus its attention on “land procurement for projects”.
“Government’s careless approach towards procuring agricultural lands from farmers for various irrigation projects and other projects will have negative impact on the agriculture sector in the State. Hence, the TJAC is against acquiring farm lands indiscriminately for projects,” Kodandaram announced.

Kodandaram finds fault with govt

Kodandaram found fault with the State government for the ongoing tussle between Adivasis and Lambadas in the State. “Transferring the officials is not the solution for the problem in tribal areas in the State. The government should take some concrete steps to resolve the issue,” he demanded.