VIJAYAWADA: Tension prevailed in Mandadam village on Friday with police detaining women staging a sit-in protest and demanding that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy drop the three-capital proposal. Following the call given by capital farmers’ joint action committee (JAC) to observe ‘sakala janula samme’ from Friday as part of intensifying pressure on the government not to go ahead with the plan to split capital into three parts, with Visakhapatnam as the executive capital, Kurnool as the judicial capital and Amaravati as the legislative capital—the villagers closed establishments, sparing only those concerned with emergency services, and cleaned vehicles of the p o l i c e d e p a r t m e n t requesting the officials to extend cooperation for their agitations.
A few of the protesters also gave flowers to the cops on duty and polished their shoes seeking their support. The agitations were organised on the day when the Boston Consulting Group submitted its report on the three capitals proposal to the chief minister. Requesting the general public to observe the bandh, the JAC members went to all capital region villages and shut down schools, shops and offices.
Rasing serious objections to the ruling party leaders’ statements that the State will fall into a debt-trap if `1 lakh crore was spent on capital construction, the farmers said they will collect the money themselves through donations. They also suggested selling of excess lands taken from the farmers for accumulation the funds and continuation with the capital construction.
Around 2 pm, the law and order situation deteriorated as the special party police tried to take protesting women into their custody. Heated arguments ensued between the two groups. While one woman fainted, three others suffered injuries as they were dragged into the police van. Raising slogans against the police, women protesters and farmers demanded an apology for the arrests despite the fact that they were protesting ‘peacefully’.
Responding to the incident, DSP Srinivas Reddy explained that the women were taken into preventive custody only after they tried to stop vehicles of High Court chief justice and other Secretariat employees. “We have been patiently dealing with the situation for the past 14 days. We took some protesters into custody when they tried to block convoys of VIPs and vehicles of Secretariat employees,” he said.
Meanwhile, the farmers offered prayers at Uddandarayunipalem where Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for the capital. Similarly, women in Krishnayapalem organised ‘chandihomam’ seeking blessings from Goddess Kanaka Durga and hoping that the CM has a change of heart. Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi too staged a protest at Dharna Chowk in Vijayawada
TDP files complaint with NHRC on ‘police attack’
TDP Rajya Sabha member Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar on Friday lodged a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Friday on the alleged attack by the police on women protesters in Amaravati. Accusing the police department of going aggressive on the protesting women and farmers, the Telugu Desam leader appealed to the Commission to take action on the issue. According to sources, members of the NHRC assured the party that a report would be sought on the incident. Speaking to mediapersons, Ravindra Kumar said the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report has no legal validity