Farmers organisations demand guaranteed MSP
SKM district convener Chunduri Rangarao speaking at a protest in front of the District Collectorate in Ongole on Monday
Ongole: The leaders of various farmers' organisations demanded the government to provide a guaranteed minimum support price for their products and protect them from the clutches of indebtedness. The members of various organisations held a protest at the District Collectorate in Ongole on Monday and demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi must fulfil the promises made to call off the protests in Delhi.
Speaking at the protest, SKM district convener Chunduri Rangarao, Pentyala Hanumantha Rao and Vadde Hanumareddy (AP Raithu Sangham), Chunchu Seshaiah (Acharya Ranga Kisan Samstha), Kondragunta Venkaiah (Telugu Raithu), Lalithakumari (AP Rythu Coolie Sangam), K Nancharlu (Akhila Bharata Rythu Coolie Sangam), K Veerareddy (Prakasam district Jamail Rythu Sangam), V Balakotaiah (Kaulu Rythu Sangam), explained that the cost of fuel, fertilisers, pesticides and seeds is increasing day by day due to the corporate-friendly measures of the prime minister. They said that Narendra Modi failed to implement the promises made to the farmers to call off the long protest.
The speakers also observed that Andhra Pradesh is the State with highest per capita debt for farmers, and they are receiving only half of the wages what MGNREGS worker is receiving at the end. They questioned, if the agriculture field is greatly developed in the last few years, why the suicides of farmers are rampant in the State. They said that their demands include the guaranteed minimum support price as per the formula C2+50 per cent proposed by the MS Swaminathan committee, cancel the amendments made in the electricity bill and provide freedom from the indebtedness to the farmers. Apart from these, the farmers' leaders are also demanding the implementation of the assured prices to the social forestry farmers, providing prices for milk being offered in Guntur and Krishna districts to the local dairy farmers, pay compensation to the chilli farmers who lost the crop to the virus, stop fixing of meters to the agriculture water pump sets.