Police foil BJP bid to stage protest at agriculture directorate office

Activists demanded fulfilment of election promise of loan waiver

There was mild tension and much jostling at the TS Agriculture Directorate office when BJP Kisan Morcha activists, led by K. Sridhar Reddy and party general secretary G. Premender Reddy, tried to stage a protest demonstration outside the office in Fatehmaidan on Monday morning. As several activists started coverging outside the office, the police arrested them following heated arguments. The agitation was to demand that the government announce ₹1 lakh loan waiver scheme as was promised before the elections and implement the PM’s ‘Fasal Bima’ scheme here. Mr. Reddy accused the police of using strong-arm methods even against the women party workers though they tried to reason it was only going to be a ‘peaceful protest’. Party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar condemned the arrests and wondered if demanding loan waiver for the farmers or seeking implementation of an existing Central scheme for the benefit of the farmers was a crime. TS people will teach a lesson to the anti-farmer government at the appropriate time, he observed.