Police arrested leader of the opposition and Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu and a few other leaders on their way to the Secretariat from Indira Park here on Monday to lay siege to the seat of state government on farmers' issues.
The TDP chief, after participating in a dharna at Indira Park, suddenly decided to march on the Secretariat. CPI leader K Narayana was also arrested and they were taken to the Banjara Hills police station. Later, they were let off.
Earlier, speaking at the dharna camp, Naidu called upon farmers to raise a banner of revolt against the state government which had remained impervious to their cries for help. Attacking the central and state government, he said, "The primary duty of the government is to ensure availability of seeds to farmers which it has not done so far. Same is the case with availability of fertilisers and financial assistance to the farming community. Loans to farmers have not reached even 30 per cent of farmers in the state. Black-marketers are dominating the seed market.'' He said the government's failure to ensure remunerative prices to farmers for all the corps had pushed the farm sector into a deep crisis.
At present, there was drought in the state and there appeared to be no contingency programme to mitigate the sufferings of farmers, he alleged and said the TDP would solve all the problems of farmers if it came to power.
He accused the state government of not having a clear-cut power policy as a result of which farmers were unable to get even seven-hour power supply. Turning to other issues, he demanded cancellation of all lands allotted to SEZs. The state had as many as 31 Congress MPs and yet they could not clear the Polavaram or Pranahita-Chevella irrigation projects, he remarked.