KHAMMAM: On April 28, when the Khammam Agriculture Market Yard was under attack by distressed chilli farmers, a 30-year-old farmer Bukya Narasimha Rao of Srirampuram in Enkoor mandal of the district was busy packing his chilli into gunny bags. This is what the family members of Narasimha Rao as well as the villagers claim. But, for the police, Narasimha Rao was one among those who vandalised the market yard.
“Not just me, but none from our village knew that there was violent protests at Khammam market yard. Unaware, I came to the market yard the next day with 13 bags of chilli and was picked up by the police. For 12 days, I was placed under arrest for no fault of mine,” Rao says.
Not just that Narasimha Rao now faces criminal cases, he lost those 13 bags of chilli he brought after investing thousands on his half-acre land in the village. “The bags I brought to the yard are nowhere now. The commission agents say they know nothing about the bags,” he told Express.
Bukya Srinu, another farmer from Bachoda tanda in Tirumalayapalem mandal, reached the market yard the day on which the vandalism unfolded. The aspiring MBA graduate, however, said he went to have lunch and when he returned, two police constables asked him to come to the police station. “As soon as I reached the police station, they snatched my mobile phone and made me to sit in the station till the next day. They didn’t even allow me to make a call to my family neither did they inform my family members. There was no space to sit in the police station and we had to sleep beside the legs of the policemen who were sitting on chairs,” Srinu told Express.
For the 12 days when he was in Khammam sub-jail, his family was upset as his only daughter, two-year Lavanya, fell ill. “Lavanya is fond of Srinu. She was suffering from fever since April 28,” Srinu’s wife Jyothi said.
Srinu sold his eight sheep, pledged Jyothi’s three tola gold and took another `50,000 loan from a private lender and a commission agent and invested on his two acre land. “Leave alone getting back the money we invested, now we are driven into debts,” Jyothi said.
Another arrested farmer was a 60-year model farmer from Chidumarri village in Mudigonda mandal, Mamidipudi Rama Rao. Displaying a banner of his father’s award ceremony some 10 years back, Rama Rao’s son Satyanarayana was seen at the district court anxiously waiting for his father’s release.
“See this, the government claims that those arrested in violence are anti-social elements. What will the government say now?” he questioned displaying the banner.
Rama Rao led a delegation of farmers to the market yard office to interact with officials. He, however, was not involved in the violence, Satyanarayana claimed.