Jana Sena lambasts govt for ignoring farmers' welfare

Mangalagiri: Jana Sena Political Affairs Committee chairman Nadendla Manohar said on Wednesday that the farmers in the State were psychologically upset with huge loss and debt burden.

He was addressing the Veera Mahila regional coordinators of the party at the party headquarters here.

"The ruling party has miserably failed to give assurance to the farmers on their future. The incidents of suicides of farmers are examples of the situation," the Jana Sena leader said.

He said that he was shocked to know that Devaramani Jagadish of Meliganuru in Kurnool district and Palagiri Rammurthy of Katurivari Palem in Prakasam district committed suicide due to crop loss and debt burden. He expressed deepest condolences to the bereaved families.

Nadendla Manohar said that it was ample clear that the government was not paying special attention to the agriculture sector as still farmers are facing dire situations. "As a responsible party, Jana Sena is talking about the tenant farmers and people who are dependent on agriculture, but the ruling party is seeing it as a political issue," he regretted.

He said the Jana Sena has taken up the responsibility to support the farmers. The persons in the power should shun speaking politics on the suicides and think about how best they can extend support to the farmers, who are feeding the people, he remarked.

The Jana Sena leader said that the farmers will get some relief if the officials announced that they would resolve the land issues of the landowners. It is now understood that the incident of suicide by Ikkurthi Anjaneyulu, who was made to run from pillar to post seeking rectification of mistakes in the land records has moved the higher officials.

Though the Guntur District Collector had responded and issued orders, the field level revenue officials have failed to respond. Now doubts are cropping up that there may be some political pressures on the revenue officials for not reacting.

The systems have to move and act with responsibility to prevent farmers, who are facing many hardships due to crop losses, debts and mistakes in the land records, from taking extreme steps.

Manohar appealed to the district-level officers and also the higher officers of the Revenue and Survey departments to take initiative to infuse confidence among farmers, respond to their problems and take immediate steps to resolve them on humanitarian grounds.