YADADRI BHUVANAGIRI/ADILABAD: Farmers burnt paddy on the Hyderabad to Warangal highway and blocked the road for almost an hour, demanding the purchase of their produce, causing severe traffic jams, on Wednesday. Later, the police arrived at the scene and pacified the protesting farmers and eventually cleared the traffic.
The farmers expressed their anger towards the authorities for not buying the grain brought by them to the Gudur Primary Agriculture Credit Society (PACS) for the last 20 days and said that approximately 3,000 quintals of grain have neither been weighed nor moved to the rice mill. They also complained that the grain purchased from some farmers was not being moved to the godowns.
In Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, farmers are expressing concern about the purchase of paddy. They said that due to the negligence of the concerned authorities, the paddy brought to the purchase centres got wet due to recent rains and as a result, they had to sell their paddy to mediators at a low price.
Meanwhile, heavy rains lasting for two hours damaged paddy stored at procurement centres in Laxmanchanda, Mamada, and a few other mandals of Nirmal district, on Tuesday night.
Farmers urged officials to purchase paddy without any restrictions and shift purchased grains from the procurement centres to the rice mills without any delay.
Meanwhile, the Collector Ashish Sangwan organised a review meeting with the officials on paddy procurement. He instructed the officials to arrange tarpaulin covers, cleaning machines, and gunny bags at the centres and also directed that the purchased paddy be immediately shifted to rice mills, required lorries be arranged, and a daily report be submitted.