BRS condemns arrest of farmers ahead of planned protest

Hyderabad, Sep 19 (IANS) Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Thursday condemned the arrest of farmers for giving a call to ‘Chalo Praja Bhavan’ to demand that the Telangana government implement its promise of farm loan waiver.

BRS working President K. T. Rama Rao said that they strongly condemn the arrest of farmers across the state.

He alleged that farmers and leaders of farmers' unions were illegally arrested and kept in police stations since last night. He termed it an atrocious act. "Are they thieves and terrorists," he asked.

KTR, as the BRS leader is popularly known, stated that since Thursday morning, BRS received information from many places that police were going to the houses of farmers and detaining them. The government should stop such undemocratic actions, he said.

The BRS working President said that the family members of the farmers were deeply worried due to the arrests by the police. BRS demands that police immediately release all the illegally detained farmers unconditionally.

KTR wanted to know why the Chief Minister was afraid of farmers. “Why are there so many restrictions on farmers?” he asked.

The BRS leader said that farmers were protesting as the Congress had failed to fulfil its poll promise that if voted to power it would waive the crop loans of Rs 2 lakh in one go.

KTR claimed that this movement by farmers is not linked to any political party. Farmers organised themselves to launch the protest and this will not stop here, he said adding that the Congress government will have to bow before the power of farmers.

BRS has been claiming that the farm loan waiver announced by the state government was not fully implemented as loans of many farmers were not waived.

The state government said that it deposited Rs 18,000 crore in the bank accounts of 22 lakh farmers to waive their loans of up to Rs 2 lakh. “Some difficulties and challenges are faced. We will resolve those issues and ensure that every eligible person gets the benefit of loan waiver,” Chief Minister Revanth Reddy said in his speech on ‘Praja Palana Dinotsvam’ on September 17.