Worried over losing land, Kamareddy farmer attempts to end life
The Hindu
JAC decides to cordon off MLA’s residence on January 20
Fearing loss of land to the proposed Kamareddy town master plan, a farmer of Rameswarapally village (2nd ward in the municipal council) of Kamareddy town attempted to end his life by consuming pesticide on Tuesday. Marripally Balakrishna was rushed to the area hospital for treatment.
This incident comes close on the heels of the death of another farmer, P.Ramulu, of Adloor Yellareddy who hung himself in the first week of this month.
Meanwhile, the farmers’ joint action committee (JAC) met at Old Rajampet village under Kamareddy town limits to chalk out the action plan to mount pressure on the government for cancelling the master plan. It was decided to intensify the agitation further and the councillors were given deadline till January 19 to pass a resolution in the municipal council to cancel the master plan.
Farmers representing all the eight villages coming under the proposed master plan attended the meeting. The resignation of councillors standing by the farmers would be submitted on January 19 to the municipal commissioner.
“All the nine councillors of merged villages must resign by January 19. If they don’t, we will cordon off the residence of MLA on January 20,” the JAC stated in a resolution passed at the meeting.
Two councillors of BJP — Kasarla Srinivas (11th ward-Lingapur) and Sutari Ravi (2nd ward-Rameshwarapally) — attended the meeting and handed over their resignation letters to the JAC leaders, stating that they were siding with farmers.
“We are demanding that the public representatives cancel the master plan and pass a resolution to this effect in the municipal council meeting. We hope that all the councillors will extend their support to us. If not, after January 20, we will further intensify our agitation. We will meet MLA Gampa Govardhan and submit a memorandum again,” JAC convenor Akula Vithal told The Hindu.
Ambassador of Finland to India Kimmo Lähdevirta on Tuesday said Finnish companies “face issues” in Tamil Nadu due to regulations that prevent their participation in tendering processes. Interacting with senior journalists of The Hindu at its head office in Chennai, he said certain regulations imposed by the State government were limiting.