RAJAMAHENDRAVARAM: AN uneasy calm prevailed in the vicinity of the Government Hospital in Rajamahendravaram, where Kapu leader Mudragada Padmanabham is continuing to resist doctors’ efforts to administer intravenous fluids while patients’ families began to get restless about the police restrictions in force on streets leading to the hospital.
The Kapu leader has been on a fast for four days, demanding release of Kapu youngsters arrested on charges of participating in the arson in Tuni on January 31.
He was shifted to the hospital from his house in Kirlampudi but doctors have been unable to persuade him to give up the fast.
Reports from within the hospital said Mudragada’s health has been deteriorating although doctors said he had been in a good physical condition going in to the fast.
He has been only having some water in small quantities.
The hospital’s superintendent Dr. Ramesh Kishore told reporters on Sunday that complications could arise if medical intervention was delayed.
Mudragada has not been allowing doctors anywhere near his bed. “It is not possible to assess his health condition unless he allows us to conduct blood and other tests,” Dr Kishore said.
On the other hand, Mudragada’s wife Padmavathi and daughter-in-law Siri were given intravenous fluids.
Specialists from cardiology, nephrology, urology, neurology and anaesthesia wings have been kept on standby to attend any exigency relating to Mudragada.
Out in the streets, with people demanding that the roads leading to the government hospital be reopened immediately, the police said they have arranged vehicles to transport emergency patients to the hospital. It turned out that these two vehicles are autorickshaws.
As many as 5,000 police personnel and six companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed in East Godavari district, which has a numerically strong composition of the Kapu social group, for which Mudragada has been fighting for job and education quotas.
With political leaders flocking to this town to get into the media spotlight, police have not been allowing anyone but the Mudragada family to visit him in hospital. Senior Congress leader V Hanumantha Rao came to town from Hyderabad but was not allowed to venture out of his hotel to do a courtesy call.
While Kapu groups continued their protests in various parts of the district, business establishments in Kiralampudi village stayed closed.
Rajamahendravaram Urban MLA A Satyanarayana told mediamen that he has appealed to Mudragada to settle the reservation issue peacefully, to which the latter is said to have responded positively.
The Kapu leader reportedly agreed to give the names of people who will negotiate with the government.