HYDERABAD:Taking a serious view of the handcuffing of farmers while taking them to the Khammam court, the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) here on Friday directed the Khammam district superintendent of police to submit a detailed report on the incident in which 10 farmers, accused of vandalism, were brought with handcuffs to the local court on Thursday.
While dealing with a petition filed by advocate T Rajnikanth Reddy, the SHRC, prima facie, felt that handcuffing of farmers and producing them before the court was in violation of their fundamental rights.
The commission directed the district SP to submit a report with all details to it and adjourned the case hearing to June 5. The issue of handcuffing of mirchi farmers continued to haunt the state government for the second consecutive day on Friday.
Despite the government’s damage control exercise in the form of acting against the police officers responsible for the incident, the entire opposition on Friday made concerted efforts to corner the government on the issue. Taking the lead, principal opposition party, the Congress, knocked on the doors of the Raj Bhavan and urged governor ESL Narasimhan to order a probe into the incident. Party leaders, led by TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy, submitted a memorandum to the governor, requesting him to withdraw all criminal proceedings initiated against the farmers.
TDP leaders too sought an unconditional apology from chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for the Khammam incident. Party state unit working president A Revanth Reddy wrote a letter to the chief minister demanding that marketing minister T Harish Rao and agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy be ousted from their positions for “insulting the farmers”.
TJAC chairman M Kodandaram said, “This government has insulted the entire farming community in the state.” On the other hand, the entire episode, made the ruling party, which has been showering various sops on the farming community to consolidate its position among them, go into soul-searching. “The Chief minister has been making efforts to win over the farmering community with his welfare schemes such as free fertilisers. But, the ransacking of Khammam market yard by chilli farmers pushed the state into a defensive mode. Now, the handcuffing of farmers further provided much-needed ammunition to opposition parties to attack the government,” a TRS leader said.
It was a mistake, admits Pocharam
Agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, while condemning the action of the police, admitted that it was a mistake on the part of the police to handcuff the arrested ryots. “The government has ordered a probe. Action is being taken against the police personnel responsible for the incident,’’ he said.