VIJAYAWADA: YSR Congress Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy and his followers were arrested in Penumaka village of Guntur district on Monday as they began to take out a rally to Tadepalli in support of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s plan for decentralisation of the capital, amidst prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC.
The motive of the rally to the Chief Minister’s camp office was to allay fears among the farmers of the 29 capital villages and Opposition leaders that the idea of shifting the capital would only benefit people and leaders of the north Andhra region. However, the police prevented him and took him into custody.
Addressing the media at the party central office in Tadepalli earlier, the YSRC MLA said capital farmers were not against Jagan’s idea and were only demanding equal development of all regions of the State.
Alla added the farmers were instead concerned that former CM N Chandrababu Naidu had deceived them by taking away their fertile lands in the name of capital development. "Lands of Dalits were forcibly taken by the previous government and farmers of the region were made beggars," he said.
Alleging that Naidu was taking up agitations just to save the lands of his benamis, he stated Naidu made his wife Bhuvaneswari donate her platinum bangles to the farmers to save lands she bought in the name of Heritage.
"Why did not Naidu and son Lokesh donate their salaries for the cause, and, instead, are asking for alms? How can Naidu lead an agitation when Section 144 is in place? TDP workers, real estate brokers and anti-social elements were taking part in the protests by posing as farmers," he alleged.
Meanwhile, the capital farmers continued staging protests on Monday, despite police imposing restrictions and prohibitory orders in the problematic villages. Mild tension prevailed for a while in Mandadam and Thullur as the villagers tried to take out rallies.
No move to cancel passports, says official
Regional Passport Officer DSS Srinivasa Rao on Monday denied rumours on social media that passports of people who participated in a protest at Benz Circle in the city a few days ago in support of Amaravati as capital, would be cancelled.
There was no truth in the reports in a section of media that Vijayawada police approached the Regional Passport Office seeking cancellation of passports of those who took part in the protest for Amaravati at Benz Circle, he said. Rao clarified that passports of individuals would be cancelled only when they violated the Passport Act, 1967.