The relay hunger-strike and dharna being staged at the Collectorate here by members of the Gajapati District Farmers’ Association in protest against the loot of their produce entered the second day on Saturday. Agitating farmers of Kashinagar block’s Puratiguda and Khandaba have alleged that a certain group of people belonging to their villages have been sealing away their kaju and paddy crops from a total of 175 acres of land for the last four years. When they oppose, they are being beaten up by the group.
“We have appraised the administration and the police time and again, but in vein. With no way left, we have started staging an indefinite hunger strike at the Collectorate here,” said association secretary Rokam Srinivas Rao, Rokam Rambahu, Padala Rambabu, Padala Srinivas, T Jageswar, Gangadu Gobinda and others.
lamenting that no officer had reached them until Saturday evening, the agitators demanded that the administration should take immediate steps for protection of their land, crops and lives. The miscreants should be punished as well, they said. They have also warned that they would continue their agitation till their demands are met.