Subabul, Jamail farmers hold Raitu Porata Deeksha

Ongole: The Andhra Pradesh Raitu Sangham and other farmer organisations staged a protest, Raitu Porata Deeksha, in front of the district Collectorate here on Friday.

They demanded that the Collector and Minister Siddha Raghava Rao implement the GO No 31 strictly to provide minimum support price of Rs 4,200 per tonne of Subabul and Rs 4,400 per tonne of Jamail.

The farmers’ associations leaders Pentyala Hanumanta Rao, Chunchu Seshaiah, Abburi Venkateswarlu, V Hanuma Reddy, Gopala Reddy and others said that the merchants were not paying minimum price for the Subabul and Jamail, even though they were fixed by the government after a series of meetings with them.

When they complained the same to the Collector on July 16 that the farmers were receiving just Rs 2800 to 3600 for Subabul at Maddipadu and at all other places they were being paid Rs 2000 for Subabul and Rs 1500 for Jamail.

The farmers’ leaders put a demand to understand the ground realities and see the farmers get the minimum price fixed by the government.

The farmers went to the residence of Siddha Raghava Rao as a rally and complained to him.

The minister said that he would issue strict orders to the officials to implement the GO No 31 and see the prices were paid to the farmers as per the GO.