VIJAYAWADA: AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi will be taking out a one-day Padayatra in Anantapur district on July 24 and interact with farmers, weavers and DWCRA women to know their plight in view of the TDP government’s ‘negligence’ to keep its promises.
Disclosing the details of Rahul’s Anantapur tour itinerary to newsmen here Sunday, APCC president N Raghuveera Reddy said AICC vice-president will set out on padayatra from Obula Devara Cheruvu (ODC) mandal headquarter town to Kondakamarla village, some 9 km away.
He will be accompanied by Congress leaders K Chiranjeevi and other Rajya Sabha members, PCC president N Raghuveera Reddy and other state leaders along with a large number of general public. “He will stop at three places to interact with three different groups of people about various issues pertaining to them,” Raghuveera said.
According to him, the first interaction will be with families of the farmers and weavers who had committed suicide. He will listen to their problems and hand over the cheques of financial aid to those families. In general, Rahul will interact with farmers, who are suffering from neglect of the government. At Dabburavaripalle, he will interact with women members of DWCRA groups, as there have been cases of suicides even among them and they too are subjected to government’s neglect. The last stop will be at Kondakamarla, where he will interact with family members of all those, who have migrated to other regions in search of livelihood.
Raghuveera Reddy said the situation in Anantapur reflects the gravity of crisis in farm sector and Self Help Groups (SHGs) in the entire state. “There have been more suicides of farmers and weavers in the district than anywhere else. It was due to chief minister Chandrababu Naidu’s call to the farmers and DWCRA women during the run up to elections, not to repay their bank loans, as TDP government, if voted to power, would waive off their loans. Today, when the farmers approach banks for loans or seek their passbooks, they are being bodily thrown out,” he said.
APCC chief said women SHGs were better off in Congress regime than the current regime where they are facing uncertainty in each and every issue. He said NREGS is being misused by the government to support the TD cadres. “Since 2005 for 9 years, there have been no migrations of farmers and farmhands from the district. But today, over one lakh people have already migrated from the district. On the other hand, against the rules, machines are being used in NREGS works and all of them belong to TDP activists,” he said and added Rahul Gandhi’s visit will lift the spirits of the farmers, weavers and DWCRA women.
An audio compact disc of songs for Rahul’s Padyatra and poster were released on the occasion. Earlier, in a meeting of the Congress party leaders, it was resolved to describe farmer suicides as state sponsored murders, as it was due to negligence to waive off the farm loans as promised, the fresh loans were not issued and pressure to clear the dues has led to the rising suicides. It was resolved to demand for MSP for agriculture produce as per the recommendations of Swaminathan Commission. The party members came to a resolution to oppose Pattiseema project and demand for stabilizing the prices of essential commodities, which are on rise.
APCC vice-president Devineni Rajasekhar (Nehru), City Congress president Malladi Vishnu and others were present at the meet.