Chilli farmers' arrest: Harish Rao, Tummala must resign, says Revanth Reddy

Hyderabad: TD working president A. Revanth Reddy on Friday wrote to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, demanding the resignations of T. Harish Rao and Tummala Nageswara Rao from the TS Cabinet for the arrest of chilli farmers in Khammam and their “subsequent humiliation by way of being paraded around and marched to court in chains and handcuffs”.

He said that Mr Harish Rao, being marketing for marketing, failed to estimate the chilli arrivals to the Khammam market and also failed to prevent commission agents and traders from colluding with each other and denying fair price to farmer.

“It was at the behest of Tummala Nageswara Rao that cases were booked on the innocent farmers,” he said.

Aggravating the situation, the two ministers issued statements that those responsible for the incident were ‘rowdies’,” Mr Revanth Reddy wrote. He accused the ministers of pressurising the local police and ensuring the farmers were slapped with grave and serious cases merely to cover up their own failures.

He wrote that when the accused produced pattadar passbooks and Aadhaar details showing there were genuine farmers, the cases against them were still not withdrawn. “Instead, they were chained and handcuffed, which is atrocious,” Mr Revanth Reddy wrote, demanding the Chief Minister immediately look into the affair and take serious action against the ministers.