Guntur, July 25: Distribution of compensation to farmers who lost their produce in fires at three cold storage units in Guntur district have been delayed as fire officials are sitting on a report on the accidents prepared by four departments — revenue, APTransco, Marketing and Fire department.
Three fire accidents took place at cold storage units in the districe this summer: April 14, 27 and May 15. About 1.5 lakh bags of chilli were lost in the fires, and 2,225 farmers suffered a cumulative loss of Rs 79 crore loss in the accidents.
Guntur joint collector A Sarath appointed a departmental committee of officials from the revenue, fire, Transco and marketing departments to prepare a report on the fires. Revenue divisional officer Senapathi Delhi Rao prepared a draft report on the fires one month ago but the district fire officer B Sudhakar is said to have refused to sign on it as instructed by the director-general of fire services.
As their owners have not equipped them with fire-fighting systems, the director-general of fire services is understood to have asked the district fire officer not to sign on the accident report in a gambit to force cold storage unit owners to fall in line.
Due to the delay in receiving compensation, farmers have been getting restive. They have twice staged protests on national highway 5 and at the district fire officer’s office.
–Agencies