WARANGAL: Even as the state government is describing constitution of farmers’ coordination committees as a revolutionary initiative towards strengthening agriculture and making farmers economically strong, over 20 farmers’ organisations are gearing up to expose the real intention of the government behind the formation of the committees.These organisations include Telangana Rythu Sangham, All India Rythu Coolie Sangham, Telangana Rythu JAC, Rythu Swaraj Vedika, Women Farmers’ Rights Association and All India Farmers’ Struggle Coordination Committee.
They will organise Rythu Mukti Yatra from September 16 to highlight the failure of the Centre and state governments to provide a helping hand to farmers. During the yatra, farmers leaders will create awareness among farmers about the ‘real intention’ of the state government behind the formation of farmers’ committees.They allege that the proposed committee will benefit land owners but not farmers as only those who have land in their name could be members of the committee. Since over 95 per cent of the farmers are tenants, all the committees will be filled with landlords and ruling party leaders. This will be detrimental to the interests of farmers as the committee members would be calling the shots. They would decide what a farmer should sow and the facilities he should get.
Even the survey being conducted by the government on farmlands would help the rich and landlords as the lands which were distributed among landless Dalits collected from landlords would again go to them as most of the landholders do not have title in their name.“During the Naxalite movement, many landlords left their lands and went to cities.
Those lands were distributed among the landless and the poor. If the survey is conducted and the records are updated now, all those lands would go back to the landlords. Through this survey the CM would be helping landlords get their lands back and make the poor landless again,” said All India Farmers’ Struggle Coordination Committee leader B Ramulu.“If the government really wants to help farmers, it should conduct a comprehensive survey and issue pattas and titles to farmers who have been cultivating the lands for years,” Ramulu said.
KTR terms farmers’ panels a revolutionary initiatve
Rajanna-Sircilla: Stating that the state government is working towards empowering farmers, IT minister KT Rama Rao said formation of Farmers’ Coordination Committees is a revolutionary initiative to help farmers become economically sound. he participated in an awareness programme organised for village level Farmers’ Coordination Committees members at Ragadu village in Sircilla along with Agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy on Wednesday. Srinivas Reddy said main aim of the committee is to unite farmers and get them best price for their produce. “The committee would give them bargaining power. They would be able to dictate price to traders,” he claimed. He said `500 crore revolving fund would be given to the committees in the next budget. He called upon Farmers’ Coordination Committee members to participate in the land records streamlining programme schedule from September 15 to December 15.