VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has made it clear that Maha Padayatra of the Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi from Amaravati to Arasavalli should continue as per its orders. The court said it had permitted the participation of a maximum of 600 members only in the padayatra. It also made it clear that farmers should only participate in the yatra. Anyone can express solidarity with the yatra, but should not take part in it. “What we want is that the orders issued by the court are followed strictly,” the court observed.
Justice Rao Raghunandan Rao of the High Court on Thursday heard the lunch motion petition moved by Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi secretary Gadde Tirupati Rao seeking orders to police to take necessary action to ensure the peaceful conduct of the yatra. The petitioner’s counsel U Muralidhar Rao said some ruling party MLAs and ministers along with their followers were creating hurdles to the yatra.
He informed the court that the yatra is being undertaken to tell the people facts pertaining to capital Amaravati. The yatra went off smoothly till it entered East Godavari. Once it entered the district, the ruling party leaders had started instigating trouble and some anti-social elements had even hurled kerosene and petrol bottles on the yatra, the counsel said.
Advocate General S Sriram, representing the home department, said the organisers were violating the court orders right from the beginning. He said even as the court directed the farmers not to make any speeches or remarks against the government or those in power, the farmers had resorted to make comments against the Chief Minister and his family members.
The AG also played videos of the speeches of farmers before the judge. Sriram said though the court gave permission for the participation of 600 only, the number of participants increased to more than 30,000 at several places and the majority of them were opposition leaders, who were making inflammatory speeches. The AG said they would file a supplementary petition with the details of how the yatra is being conducted at the ground level with photos and vidoes and also objected to the mention of ministers and MLAs as respondents by the petitioner.
Muralidhar Rao informed the court that common people have been voluntarily extending their support to the yatra and they cannot stop them. He urged the court to issue orders that no other programmes are organised on the yatra route. The court asked the petitioner to assure that they would not violate the court orders with respect to conduct of the yatra and said they would give orders for both sides in this regard. Later, the matter was posted for hearing on Friday.