VIJAYAWADA: Police pickets have come across the city as the PRC Struggle Committee has announced to go ahead with ‘Chalo Vijayawada’ on Thursday. Vijayawada Commissioner of Police Kanthi Rana Tata and Krishna Superintendent of Police Siddharth Kaushal explained to the agitating employees that permission for the rally at BRTS road with around 5,000 employees was denied, however, the struggle committee members were reportedly preparing to go ahead with the proposed protest seeking the government to fulfil their three demands - cancel PRC GOs/put them in abeyance, credit old wages for January and disclose the Ashutosh Mishra Committee report on PRC.
Anticipating that there would be disturbances to law and order and violation of Covid-19 protocol, the police have imposed traffic restrictions on the BRTS road from Seethannapet gate to Madhuranagar from 5 am to 3 pm on Thursday.Commissioner Kanthi Rana Tata said vehicles going towards the BRTS road will be diverted to other routes.
He further instructed all station house officers to contain agitators by taking them into preventive custody in their respective limits and arranged border checkpoints at all entry points of the city such as Ibrahimpatnam, Kankipadu, Nunna, Prakasam Barrage and Varadhi junction. “Employees need to cooperate with the police and withdraw their call as the State is reporting a spike in Covid-19 cases,” Rana said.
Meanwhile, the police have repaired all the defunct CCTV cameras on the entire stretch from Seethannapet gate to Madhuranagar to record and monitor the movements of public and agitators.In addition, extra force was deployed at all junctions to prevent employees from reaching the venue. “Action would be initiated against those violating rules. The entire proceedings will be recorded and could be used as evidence against the agitating employees,” he added.