Nellore: TD politburo member Somireddy Chandramohan has urged Nellore Collector Chakradhar Babu to help the family of Duggirala Karunakar, who committed suicide on Saturday due to alleged harassment by the YSRC leaders.
In a letter to the collector, Somireddy said Karunakar belonged to the SC Colony at Musunuru in Kavali town and he is survived by his parents, wife and two girls.
“Karunakar has been eking out a living by fishing and he had also taken two tanks on lease from the Lakshmipuram fishermen society in Annagaripalem panchayat three years back for fish culture. He had borrowed money for this from lenders and paying the interest. The entire family has been spending day and night at the tanks to protect the fish,” the letter to the collector noted.
Added Somireddy, “However, Karunakar’s efforts to catch fish were being hindered by local YSRC leaders Kethireddy Jagadeesh and Suresh Reddy of Kavali for the last 2 years.”
“Karunakar, along with his mother, took the issue to the notice of the YSR Congress leaders and urged them to “allow” him to catch the fish from the tanks, citing their growing size and mounting interest on the loans he took.”
“The YSRC leaders ignored his pleas, harassed him and abused him in the name of his caste. They were not sympathetic to him even when he said he had pledged his house to take the loans,” Chandramohan said, quoting from the suicide note Karunakar addressed to the SP of Nellore.
Somireddy appealed to the collector to allow the family to catch the fish from the tanks that Karunakar took on lease and prevent any trouble to the family from the YSRC leaders. Please advise the police, revenue and fisheries officials to help the family,” he urged the collector.
Referring to a recent help from the government to the family of a suicide victim, Udayagiri Narayana, as per the National SC ST Act, Somireddy sought a similar help to Karunakar’s family.
The TD leader sought a compensation of Rs 8.24 lakh to Karunakar’s family, a government job and pension besides allotment of a house site, land for cultivation and support for the education of the children of Karunakar till their graduation.
Meanwhile, YSR Congress leader and chairman of the Kavali agriculture marketing committee, Mannemala Sukumar,
Sukumar along with Kavali MLA Pratapkumar Reddy consoled the family of Karunakar on Sunday and criticised the TD leaders for blaming the YSRC leaders for the suicide.
