GUNTUR: The farmers in Tullur mandal have dismissed chief minister Chandrababu Naidu’s meeting with local farmers to create public opinion on land pooling as sham.
‘’They have taken only few TDP workers to Hyderabad to participate in the meeting. Only those who are favouring the land pooling system have been allowed to get into the buses,” rued Chilaka Basavaiah, a farmer from Rayapudi.
According to Chilaka Basavaiah, one farmer from Penumaka who boarded the bus at Mangaligiri was made to disembark, when he made his stand clear on land pooling. Some farmers got into the bus not knowing that the meeting was going to be a stage-managed one, but the TDP workers made them alight the bus at Undvalli.
The farmers who were apprehensive about parting with their lands for capital city have been repeatedly complaining that the government was not giving heed to their words. The government has been conducting meetings with only TDP workers and those who are in favour of giving lands and sending the signals that all farmers are ready to give lands, a farmer said.
“Like the capital committee meetings conducted in the villages, even the meeting with chief minister in Hyderabad is a stage-managed show. Only those who are ready to reiterate the government stand are allowed. What is the use in conducting such meetings?” asked Gadde Chandrashekar, a farmer from Malkapuram.
About four to five farmers from each village have been selected to participate in the meeting and government has provided buses to take the farmers to Hyderabad.
“If chief minister Chandrababu Naidu really wants to listen to the farmers, he should give an opportunity for us to air our views. We were made to shut our mouths in the village meeting. Even today we were not allowed to board the buses. There was no public announcement about the arrival of the buses. Many farmers were unaware of the arrival of the bus,” said Jayamma an agriculture labourer from Nidamarru village in Mangalagiri.