Vijayawada: Amaravati farmers' stir reaches 1,200 days

Vijayawada: Amaravati region farmers' agitation demanding retention of Amaravati as capital completed 1,200 days on Friday. Several parties, including TDP, BJP, Jana Sena and Left parties extended support to the farmers and participated in the meeting oganised by Amaravati Parirakshana Samiti in Mandadam village of Amaravati region. The all-party leaders expressed confidence that the final victory will be the farmers of Amaravati region.

Speaking on the occasion, former minister Kanna Lakshminarayana, who recently joined TDP, said Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had failed to fulfill his promises. He said Jagan concentrating only on income and failed to protect the interests of people. Building workers lost livelihood due to scarcity of sand, he said. CPI state secretary K Ramakrishna said the agitation will be continued. He said the government will receive a set back with Supreme Court verdict in July. Jagan Mohan Reddy had failed to protect the interests of farmers of Amaravati region, he remarked.

BJP national secretary Y Satya Kumar, while addressing the gathering, said 1,200 days of fight is not a small matter. He criticised the YSRCP government for portraying small farmers who gave land as 'landlords' to berate the movement of farmers. "At a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi government was working towards making farvmers self-sufficient, Jagan is making them struggle for their own land. BJP stands in complete solidarity with the farmers of Amravati against this Jagan-made disaster," he declared. BJP leader and former minister Ch Adinarayana Reddy expressed party's complete solidarity with the agitating farmers.

YSRCP MLA Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy said that Jagan Mohan Reddy has to answer why he is rejecting Amaravati as capital. He said Prime Minister should intervene to prevent shifting of capital from Amaravati. He said Amaravati has capacity to compete with other metros. MLC-elect Panchumarthi Anuradha of TDP said that there was no response from state government despite 1,200 days agitation by Amaravati farmers. She said that people voted against the three capital proposal in recently-concluded MLC elections.

AP Congress Committee president Gidugu Rudraraju said that the Congress is committed to Amaravati capital. Congress working committee president Sunkara Padmasri said that the state government has been harassing the farmers of Amaravati by foisting false cases. Both the Central and state governments have been denying justice to Amaravati farmers, though the capital foundation was laid by PM Modi, she said.