VHR extended financial assistance to nine chilli farmers of the district

Senior Congress leader V. Hanumantha Rao on Saturday extended financial assistance to nine chilli farmers of the district, who were allegedly handcuffed by the police in connection with a case here last year.

Mr. Rao raised the money by auctioning his bracelet recentlyto provide succour to the poor chilli farmers against whom a case of attack on Khammam market yard was booked last year, sources said.The senior Congress leader handed over 1 lakh each to as many as nine chilli farmers in the presence of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee working president Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka at the party office here late Saturday afternoon.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Vikramarka alleged that the nine impoverished chilli farmers were booked under stringent sections and were brought to the court handcuffed from the sub-jail in the town in April last year.Stating that the hapless chilli farmers had come to the market yard to sell their chilli produce when the incident occurred in April last year, he alleged that the ill-treatment meted out to them exposed the tyrannical rule and coercive tactics to silence the voice of dissent against lack of remunerative prices for farm produce.