Kakinada: Farmers associations owing allegiance to various parties and unions took out a procession with tractors and bullock carts in Eluru on Thursday demanding minimum guaranteed price of production cost plus 50 per cent.
Riding bullock carts, tractors and trolleys, they proceeded from Alluri Seetharamaraju Stadium and reached the Fire Station passing through Old Bus Stand and Jute Mill Centre. Police, however, prevented them from reaching the collectorate.
Various farmer leaders said union government should enact a loan waiver law on lines of the Kerala government. It must fix MSP by adding 50 percent to the production cost of farm produce, as recommended by the M.S. Swaminathan Commission. The New Electricity Law must be abolished, they said.
They demanded that AP government withdraw its proposal to fix electricity metres to agricultural pumpsets.
Speaking on the occasion, Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangham state joint secretary K. Srinivas said the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is adopting anti-farmer policies.
Rythanga Samakhya state president Yerneni Nagendranath, Congress Kisan Cell state president J. Gurunatha Rao, IFTU district general secretary U. Venkateswara Rao, Dega Prabhakar of AP Rythu Sangham and representatives of Andhra Pradesh Tenant Farmers Association, Andhra Pradesh Mahila Samakhya and other organisations were present.
