Hyderabad: Mild tension prevailed at a “Farmers’ Festival” held at Narmetta village in Siddipet district on Thursday, March 19, when Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Congress workers began sloganeering and clashed with each other, even as leaders of both party were delivering their addresses.
The festival was attended by Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao, BC Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar, Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad, Legislative Council Chairman Gutha Sukhender Reddy, Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao and others.
The clash broke out while Harish Rao was speaking. Workers of the two parties stood up and clashed with each other, prompting several leaders to intervene.
Harish Rao told his party workers not to get instigated and to sit down and listen if they had any respect for him. “If they don’t have the decency, let it be. But we should have it. Nobody should talk,” he appealed, calling out BRS workers Ramesh and Kanaka Raju to be quiet.
Ponnam Prabhakar also tried to bring the situation under control but couldn’t. In an angry tone, he asked the police personnel stationed there to remove the workers who were creating a disturbance at the meeting.
Nageswara Rao also had to intervene to assuage the situation. He too asked the police to send those standing out of the venue. “I have raised slogans for many leaders in my 50 years of experience as a politician, irrespective of all the parties I have represented. If you want to uphold the respect of your leader, whether it is Harish Rao or Raghunandan Rao, you need to behave. Have patience and understand the importance of this event,” he urged.
Minister Vakiti Srihari gave the “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan” slogan to control the situation and told the audience that everybody had contributed to establishing the oil palm factory. The situation finally came under control.
Palm oil import duty, diversification of crops
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy is scheduled to inaugurate the newly-constructed oil palm processing factory in Narmetta on March 22. The factory has been built by the Telangana Oilfed for Rs 300 crore in 18 months.
Speaking at the gathering, Nageswara Rao said that if the Centre re-imposed the import duty on palm oil imports, he would take the responsibility of ensuring 25,000 tonne of palm oil produced domestically. He said he has also met with Revanth Reddy regarding the establishment of a palm oil refinery in Siddipet, for which a foundation stone would be laid shortly.
With Siddipet located in the centre of the state geographically, he felt it would be beneficial to all. He said that palm oil factories have been set up in all districts in the state.
He appealed to farmers to diversify their crops by cultivating those which are in high demand and could yield higher profits. He not only asked Harish Rao to grow oil palm, but also Gaddam Prasad and Sukhender Reddy to plant them in their farms. He told the farmers that oil palms could be planted as an intercrop with several crops, including paddy.
“The Centre made it clear 15 days ago that it is not going to procure paddy and cautioned the state government. The farmers will get into trouble. But we got used to cultivating paddy and relaxing at home. The time now is to diversify,” he told the farmers.
He also said that 20 lakh acre in the state were suitable for oil palm cultivation, but presently only 3 lakh acre were under cultivation. He said there is a need to increase cultivation to 6 lakh acre in the next three years, for which all parties and their representatives need to work together.
Harish credits KLIS for enabling oil palm cultivation in Siddipet
Addressing the gathering, Harish Rao said that the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) had enabled favourable weather conditions for growing oil palms in Siddipet.
“Before the Kaleshwaram project was constructed, there used to be less humidity in the air, making oil palm cultivation not feasible in this area. After irrigation was extended to this area, scientists observed high humid conditions, which created favourable conditions for oil palm cultivation,” he noted.
He claimed that oil palm cultivation would not be affected in his district even during drought or flood situations. Mentioning that Siddipet stood second only to Khammam in oil palm cultivated area, he urged the state government to extend the subsidy on the second drip for oil palm, as more water is needed once the plants grow.
| Posted by Vivek Bhoomi | | 
