VIJAYAWADA: Farmers of the capital region Amaravati staged a 24-hour hunger strike to mark the 800th day of their agitation against the State government’s plan to shift the State capital from Amaravati. Several leaders of TDP, BJP, Janasena Party, CPI and CPM, besides people’s organisations participated in the programme. Farmers said their sacrifice for the capital city of the state today is going down the drain. “We are opposing any sale of the land given by us to fund the government’s welfare programmes,” they said.
TDP, Left, Congress, JSP, BJP leaders criticised the State government’s unwillingness to respect the sacrifices of the farmers in Amaravati. TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu asserted that the struggle for retaining Amaravati as the sole capital of AP would go down as a historic agitation in the country. Naidu lauded the farmers, women and youth for relentlessly continuing their agitation for Amaravati for the past 800 days.
In a statement, he said history would not forgive CM Jagan Mohan Reddy for stalling the massive Amaravati Capital project. The YCP rulers called Capital a burial ground but now they were mortgaging its lands and bringing loans in the name of fund mobilisation.BJP leader Lanka Dinakar said Amaravati farmers have been staging the protest for 800 days, out of the 1,000 days of governance of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, which shows the “pathetic situation”.
“In spite of it, the Chief Minister is not even feeling a pinch of it. It is very sad. The Jagan Reddy government targeted women and farmers in the capital city and harassed them. Despite problems created by the government at each and every stage, Amaravati farmers’ padyatra from High Court to Tirumala was a great success,” the BJP leader pointed out. He said the Centre recognised Amaravati as the capital and released Rs 1,500 crore for its construction and another Rs 2,100 crore under the smart city project.
