NRIs solidarity with the Farmers in India

NRIs in the USA expressed their support and solidarity with the farmers committing suicide in Telugu states and appealed farmers not to commit suicide. In support of solidarity event happened in Hyderabad yesterday, NRIs met in 11 cities across the USA and showed their concern towards dying farmers and came forward to provide any support they can. Event was organized by volunteers in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Fremont, Los Angeles, Michigan, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, New Jersey and San Fransisco Bay Area, Washington, DC. All through these events, NRIs raised slogans 'Raithuloo aatmahatyalu vaddu, meeku andagaa memu untaam'

NRIs from all walks of life participated in these events voluntarily and discussed the core issues and reasons for large number of farmers committing suicide. They also expressed their concern with the policies affecting farmers directly and indirectly. NRIs from various cities made appeal to the government to implement M.S. Swaminathan commission's guidelines for fair pricing of agriculture produce, integrate NREGS with agriculture, conduct soil tests on all agricultural lands, implement complete loan waiver immediately, extend agriculture equipment subsidy to the small farmers, and implement crop insurance with each village as an unit, provide proper storage facilities with spot loans features.

NRIs also appealed to the farmers not to grow water-intensive commercial crops every season, adapt sustainable methods and alternative food crops. This way, input costs can be controlled and family can have food at least, if crop fails. Some NRIs pledged support for the families of farmers who committed suicide, providing education for the children and helping families with basic needs.

Event in 11 cities was coordinated by local volunteers. Dushant Reddy and Santosh Pulluru from Austin, Ramesh Nallavolu from Boston, Mukesh Thumma and Srinivas Palthepu from Chicago, Kiran Karnati from Detroit, Abhishek Doddaand Santosh from Fremont, Srihari and Sreekanth from Los Angeles, Srinivas reddy from Minneapolis, Sravanth Poreddy, Srikar and Akshay from new Jersey, Ravi Mayreddy and Babu Bayyana from Philadelphia, Vinoy Mereddy in San Fransisco Bay Area, Suresh Ediga in Washington, DC coordinated this event, many volunteers supported them in organizing it on the same day across the USA.

Complete event gallery can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/135656641@N08/shares/o85u4T