RAJAMAHENDRAVARAM/VIJAYAWADA: Unidentified miscreants desecrated the statue of BR Ambedkar at Dubacherla village in Nallajerla mandal of Gopalapuram Assembly constituency late Friday night.
Condemning the desecration of the statue, various Dalit organisations staged a protest on Saturday, and demanded stringent action against the culprits. They disrupted the vehicular traffic on the national highway for sometime.
Having learnt about the incident, Gopalapuram TDP MLA M Venkata Raju and former minister Taneti Vanitha rushed to the village, and registered their protest.
Kovvur DSP Deva Kumar reached the spot, and pacified the leaders of Dalit organisations, assuring that the culprits would be arrested soon.
Tension prevailed in the village for some time. Kula Vimochana Porata Samithi also demanded the arrest of the desecrators. A police picket was set up at the Ambedkar statue to thwart any protests.
East Godavari district SP D Narasimha Kishore warned that stern action will be taken against mischief mongers if they spread hatred on social media platforms.
Condemning the desecration of Ambedkar statue, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu directed Director General of Police Harish Kumar Gupta to take stringent action against the culprits.
The Chief Minister spoke to the DGP and other higher police officials, and asked them to thwart the evil designs of mischief mongers to disturb peace in the State.
He instructed the police officials to ensure that desecration of statues of national leaders do not recur in the future.
Special teams formed to nab culprits
The DGP informed the Chief Minister that the situation in the village was brought under control within no time. Special teams were formed to nab the culprits. He urged the people to be vigilant, and thwart the evil designs of anti-social forces to disturb peace.
“Stern action will be taken against the mischief mongers if they resort to create law and order problem by promoting hatred among different sections of the people,” the DGP warned.
NTR statue defiled
In a separate incident, unidentified miscreants desecrated the statue of TDP founder and former Chief Minister NT Rama Rao at Musullakunta village in Nallajerla mandal in the early hours of Saturday.
TDP MLA Venkata Raju and mandal president T Satyanarayana visited the village, and pacified the agitating TDP activists, assuring that stern action would be taken against the culprits. He suspected that it might be the handiwork of ganja batch to create trouble. Later, the MLA purified the NTR statue and garlanded it. A case has been registered.