Guntur: Workers and employees of Asia’s biggest chilli yard at Guntur staged a protest demanding that the chilli trade be resumed immediately and Rs 5,000 compensation paid to each worker for their loss of income for the past one month.
They alleged that neither the government nor the officials was trying to resolve the eNAM issue which stopped the trading in the yard for the past one month. Chilli yard workers and coolies joint action committee leader U. Nageswara Rao alleged that chilli farmers, yard workers and coolies were the worst sufferers of the boycott. He lamented that families of chilli growers, workers and coolies were facing severe hardship due to the boycott.
He said that marketing department, chilli yard and the government have been earning huge revenues from chilli trade and exports. The state should pay Rs 5,000 compensation to each of the worker and coolie.
Former MLC K.S. Lakshmana Rao alleged that the marketing department minister C. Adinarayana Reddy never tried to visit the chilli yard to know the difficulties of chilli growers, workers, coolies and traders for the past one month. He alleged that the government was only interested in the revenue from taxes on public but not ready to resolve the difficulties.
He warned about intensifying of agitations from next week if the government fails to restart trading activity by Monday.
