ELURU: Tension prevailed in the city on Friday when police intercepted a bus carrying Dalits of Garagaparru en route to the Collectorate here for a protest and took it to the Eluru Rural Police Station.
The Dalit victims of social boycott were detained for over three hours and not allowed to alight from the bus. Kula Vivaksha Vyatireka Porata Samithi district secretary P Ramakrishna accused the cops of preventing the women passengers from using toilets. Dalit Hakkula Porata Samithi (DHPS) district secretary K Lakshman, DYFI leader B Siva and others denounced the police action. The police arrested 15 Dalits and KVVPS, DYFI and DHPS leaders to avoid any trouble.
The Dalits contended that they were on their way to submit a memorandum to the Collector as 84 ostracised families of Garagaparru were yet to get the compensation announced by the State.
Later, the Dalits were allowed to go to the Collectorate and the arrested activists were freed.
The Dalits then submitted a memorandum to Collector K Bhaskar seeking the promised compensation.
The Collector told them that a compensation of Rs1 lakh each was paid to 173 families. The remaining 53 families would be compensated soon. He added that the 84 families which were denied compensation were not SCs, but belonged to Backward Classes.