The protests by farmers of Amaravati capital region against the three-capitals plan of YSR Congress party government in the state, which began on a small note eight days ago is now snowballing into a major agitation, with the Telugu Desam Party and its supporting media houses fanning the flames of protests every day.
Sensing that there is an opportunity to gain political mileage in the issue, Bharatiya Janata Party and Jana Sena, too, joined the issue and are now supporting the farmers’ agitation.
Even the Communist parties have entered the scene to add fuel to the fire. Now, there is a joint action committee in the name of Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi.
The BJP leaders have started touring the Amaravati capital region and making it a national issue, drawing the attention of the Centre. They forced the farmers to send en masse representations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi through Speed Post.
For the ninth consecutive day, anti-establishment dailies Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy carried banner stories on Amaravati agitation.
Eenadu published a flyer on Vice-President of India M Venkaiah Naidu’s U-turn statement that all the administrative offices, including Secretariat and heads of various government departments, assembly and high court should be at one place.
Eenadu also played up the representation made by some Rayalaseema leaders that they want the capital to be shifted to their region, as it was completely neglected till now. Apparently, it sought to create an impression that Jagan is stirring the hornet’s nest by proposing the three capitals formula.
Andhra Jyothy, as usual, gave a huge coverage to the agitation, saying that the farmers were not interested in any other formula, except continuing the capital at Amaravati. Sakshi completely ignored the development for obvious reasons.
Apparently, chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is planning to come out with an action plan to douse the agitation of Amaravati farmers. According to reports, Jagan will appoint a committee of ministers to find a lasting solution to the land issues of Amaravati farmers.
He appears to be of the hope that if the farmers are given back their lands with reasonable compensation, they would withdraw their agitation.
He will also have a meeting with the MLAs belonging to Krishna and Guntur districts, particularly those covering the capital area and ask them to hold negotiations with the agitating farmers.
Jagan’s tour for the third consecutive day In Kadapa, particularly the public meeting at Pulivendula made the big headline in Sakshi and was also covered prominently in Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy.
While Sakshi’s headline quoted Jagan as fulfilling his vow to Pulivendula, Eenadu story talked about providing drinking water to every household in Uranium-affected villages of Kadapa and Andhra Jyothy quoted Jagan’s comment that he would drive away drought from Rayalaseema.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to the people to maintain restraint and behave in a responsible manner was also highlighted by Eenadu and Sakshi.
The major stories that were carried by Sakshi and ignored by other two major dailies were the arrangements made by the government for door delivery of essential commodities from January 1, formation of a special purpose vehicle for the construction of Godavari-Krishna river linkage project and record payments made to farmers within 48 hours of purchase of their agriculture produce by the government.
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