Notwithstanding the incessant rain lashing Prakasam district and the police curbs en route, a group of 157 farmers from the Amaravati capital region enthusiastically continued their 45-day march to Tirumala from N.G. Padu village in Prakasam district on Thursday.
Barricades erected by the police to regulate the crowd did not deter tens of thousands of people from scores of villages in the S.N. Padu Assembly segment to follow the farmers on the 11th day of their walkathon.
Tempers ran high as the local farmers raised ‘Jai Amaravati’ slogan as an expression of their solidarity with the Amaravati farmers, who had parted with their lands for the purpose of Amaravati.
The farmers were opposing the YSRCP government’s three-capital decision and demanding that Amaravati be retained as the sole capital of the State.
Tension mounted when a mob broke through the police cordon near Chadalawada village and rushed towards N.G. Padu to join the farmers from Amaravati.
Police resorted to lathicharge to restore order after a rope party tried in vain to regulate the crowd that also removed the police barricades erected at different places and ran helter-skelter. In the melee, one farmer broke his hand.
Home-makers and others walked along with the women from Amaravati, who had been waging a protracted struggle since the government announced its three-capital policy. They showered flower petals on the farmers and followed them up to Mukthinuthalapadu.
Heated arguments were witnessed when electronic mediapersons tried to interact with the Amaravati Parirakshana Samiti leaders during the walkathon.
TDP leaders under house arrest
The police, who had allowed leaders of the opposition parties to take part in the march since it entered the district on Saturday, kept under house arrest TDP leaders, including MLAs G. Ravikumar and Y. Sambasiva Rao, and former MLAs D. Janardhana Rao and B.N. Vijaykumar, in view of the Model Code of Conduct in force for the MLC and local body elections.
Condemning the police curbs, TDP Ongole Lok Sabha unit president N. Balaji alleged that the ruling YSRCP, unnerved by the “tremendous response” to the ‘maha padayatra’ from the people, was trying to place hurdles by using the police.
