Fire officials stall relief to farmers

GUNTUR: 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.