VIJAYAWADA: Residents of Madhuranagar in the city, with the support of Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), staged a protest on Saturday against the presence of liquor shops in the residential area. They averred that the bootleggers were causing much inconvenience to the local residents, especially children.
Later, the protestors including children took out a candle light rally. Meanwhile, the north zone police on Monday issued warnings to the agitators for involving children in the protest, which was a clear violation of child rights under the Juvenile Justice Care and Protection Act.
According to DYFI Secretary K Ramanjaneyulu, they were agitating against the liquor shops since a decade now and gave representations to the local public representatives and officials seeking removal of the same, but in vain.
“There are 15 lanes connected to the main road and a belt shop greets the people at the very beginning. Every resident has to cross the shop to reach the bus stop, medical shops, general stores or school,” he explained, adding that several anti-social elements like ganja consumers and blade batch at the liquor shop were only adding to their woes.
Condemning the police warning, Ramanjaneyulu wondered as to how children staging a stir became child rights violation, for the liquor shops were having a negative impact on the kids.
When contacted, Assistant Commissioner of Police K Sravani said that no case was registered against anyone for now and warned that involving children in protests won’t be entertained thereafter.
However, CPM State Secretary Ch Baburao sought to know as to why the police were not filing child rights violation cases when the kids were made to wait for hours, waving flags on the roadside, to welcome political leaders for an event.