Victims urge govt to form panel to settle the issue

Vijayawada: Stating that the problems of AgriGold customers and agents have been pending for 10 years and NDA alliance parties assured to resolve the issue in their election manifesto, CPI state secretary K Ramakrishna demanded the state government to constitute a committee and solve the problems faced by lakhs of customers.

Ramakrishna asked Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the long-pending problem and take steps to repay the deposits.

He visited Dharna Chowk here on Monday and expressed solidarity to the AgriGold customers and Agents Welfare Association which observed one day Maha Vignapana Deeksha. The association has been fighting for several years to get justice.

Addressing the AgriGold customers and agents, Ramakrishna said the government has to solve the problem in a stipulated time and there will be no use if the problem is solved after a very long time.

He lamented that the governments are changing in the state but the problem has been persisting for a decade. The CPI leader demanded the government to form a committee with officials to tour the state and meet the AgriGold customers and agents and get information on the pending problem.

AgriGold Customers and Agents Welfare Association honorary president and CPI leader Muppalla Nageswara Rao said the NDA in its manifesto promised to solve the problem by selling the properties of the AgriGold company.

He recalled that the Chief Minister had paid compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of 142 customers and agents who died after the company was closed. “Following the prolonged struggle of the association, the government had repaid deposits to the tune of Rs 906 crore to the customers in two phases. It should constitute a committee to solve the problem of lakhs of customers and agents. AgriGold company is selling the bename properties, which should be prevented so that they can be sold to compensate the customers,” Nageswara Rao said. He also suggested that the government set up fast-track court to do justice to the victims. MLC K Lakshmana Rao, former minister Vadde Sobhanadreeswara Rao, CPI state secretariat member Jangala Ajay Kumar, CPM state secretariat member Y Venkateswara Rao, AITUC state president Ravulapalli Ravindranath and others spoke at the meeting. Several hundred AgriGold customers and agents participated in the one-day deeksha.