Protesting Farmers on Boil, Face Hardships To Protect Paddy at Procurement Centres

Warangal: Thunderstorms accompanied by gales, for the past two days, have aggravated the farmers’ miseries as they are struggling to protect their produce at the procurement centres in erstwhile Karimnagar and Warangal districts.

After the completion of the harvest, farmers have brought their produce to procurement centres for sale but the delay in procurement has further compounded their woes as they are facing hardships to protect foodgrains from unexpected heavy downpour and gusty winds.

In erstwhile Karimnagar district, farmers waiting for clearance at the purchasing centres such as Theegalaguttapally, Durshed, Bommakal, Peddapalli, Sulthanabad Julapally, Kamanpur, Aligedu Manthani, Raikal, Beerpur and Dharmaram mandals — despite their efforts to protect their produce from rains by covering them with tarpaulins — a sizeable amount of paddy was washed away in the rainwater run-off.

Whereas in Raikal and Konaraopet mandals, the protesting farmers were demanding immediate procurement of their paddy without any further delays or restrictions.

Some of the agitating farmers alleged that the produce which was stockpiled at the procurement centres was submerged in the water due to sudden rain lashing the area for the past two days causing a huge loss to them.

Alleging further, the farmers stated that officials at the procurement centres instead of purchasing the paddy early, are keeping restrictions on the purchases simply on the grounds that the moisture content of the produce should not exceed to 17 per cent and the weighing is done only in the morning time. “The officials are delaying the paddy procurement intentionally,” the farmers alleged.

In the erstwhile Warangal district also, farmers of the Mahadevpur, Kataram, Maha-muttaram Regonda, Ganapuram, Bhupalpally, Narsampet, Eturnagaram, Venkatapur, Mulugu, Mahabubabad Nellikudur, Thorrur, Kuravi, Maripeda, Bayyaram, Garla, Wardhannapet and Jangaon areas — suffered losses and urged the state government for ensuring the purchase of paddy by these procurement centres without putting restrictions on ‘moisture content outer limit’, besides, they should be duly compensated for the loss they suffered due to sudden rainfall leading to loss of foodgrains.