KAMAREDDY: Farmers belonging to eight villages of Kamareddy municipality have decided to take a poke at Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is seeking election to the State Assembly from Kamareddy segment. They have decided to queer his pitch by filing 100 nominations in the upcoming Assembly election for Kamareddy with a demand for cancellation of the Kamareddy Municipality Draft Master Plan.
The farmers fear that the proposed master plan will affect their interests. The farmers who met in Lingapur village on Tuesday noted that the government had scrapped the Jagtial Master Plan but kept on hold the Kamareddy plan. They suspect that the government, after the elections, would approve the draft master plan.
As Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao himself is contesting from Kamareddy, they do not want to let the opportunity slip by. The farmers recalled MA&UD Minister KT Rama Rao’s promise to scrap the draft master plan for Kamareddy but not bothering about it subsequently. They demanded that the governor should take steps to cancel the draft master plan in the coming few days. They warned that if their demand is not met, they would file nominations en masse for Kamareddy.
BJP extends support
They said that from every village 15 farmers would file nominations for Kamareddy Assembly seat. They hope the government will feel the heat if they organise a protest in this fashion. Kamareddy Draft Master Plan issue has been brought centre-stage by BJP leader K Venakata Ramana Reddy. Later under the banner of Rythu Ikya Vedika, he continued agitation from November to January. Farmers organised protest programmes at the District Collector Office and Municipal Office. In Sadashivanagar, one farmer Ramulu died by suicide.
The BJP extended its full support to the farmers’ movement. The Kamareddy Municipal Council adopted a resolution in its special meeting and urged the government to cancel the Kamareddy Draft Proposal and prepare a fresh draft proposal by taking all sections of society into confidence.
Preparation of a Master Plan is a continuous process in every municipality. Once every 20 years, the Municipal Administration Department prepares the Master Plan for every civic body. The last master plan was prepared in 2000 for 20 years. The Draft Master Plan, prepared for 2041, had been ketp on hold following agitation by farmers.Farmers raised objections to bringing cultivable lands into Industrial and Green Zones and proposing a 100 ft road through cultivable lands.