Render justice to AgriGold victims: Justice Chandra Kumar

Vijayawada: Retired judge of the High Court Justice B Chandra Kumar lashed out at the government for dragging its feet and deliberating postponing in resolving the AgriGold issue.

Participating in a round-table conference on the issues pertaining to the victims of AgriGold here on Tuesday, where he was the chief guest, he said that the state government was falsely calming that the issue was pending in the court, which was not correct. More than 32 lakh victims were suffering for the past three years and if the government takes initiative to solve any public issue, the courts would not have any objection, he added..

Addressing a gathering, Justice Kumar said that when the property value was more than the loan amount, the property should be sold and justice should be rendered to the victims. He said that the property value was Rs 8,000 crore and Rs 4,000 crore should be paid to 19.52 lakh victims. But the government was delaying things for no reason, he lamented.

He mentioned that till now, around 180 victims committed suicide and the government had not taken any step to solve the issue. He urged the government to solve the issue by selling off the property. Rendering justice to the victims was the first and foremost duty of the government, he added. He complimented the Agri-Gold Customers and Agents Association (AGCAA) for fighting against the government for the past three years to solve the issue. He further complimented the association for achieving ex-gratia for the victim families.

National CPI secretary Dr K Narayana said the AgriGold property value was more and it could be sold easily, but till now nothing was done resulting in 180 suicides. He said that all the victims should further intensify the agitation to put pressure on the government to solve the issue without further delaying.