Several activists of the CPI (ML-New Democracy) and the All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha (AIKMS) were arrested by the police when they tried to lay siege to Transport Minister P Ajay Kumar’s camp office here to mount pressure on the ruling dispensation address podu farmers’ issues.
The protesters were stopped by the police near the Minister’s camp office after they made an abortive attempt to barge into the office building to register their protest over the unresolved issues of podu farmers. However, the Minister was not present in the camp office at that time, sources said.
They were bundled into a police van and shifted to the two-town police station from where they were let off later in the day.
The call for joint protest was given by the CPI (ML-ND) and the AIKMS State committees in predominantly tribal populated areas of the State on Monday demanding grant of pattas to tribals and other traditional forest dwellers for their “podu lands” under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, withdrawal of cases foisted against several podu farmers in the erstwhile composite Khammam district.
In a statement, the CPI (ML-ND) State assistant secretary P Ranga Rao alleged that several party activists were taken into preventive custody by the police in Khammam, Kothagudem, Yellandu and various other areas in the early hours of the day in a bid to foil the protests by the party cadres to protect the rights of tribals.
The MLAs representing the Agency areas should ensure sanction of pattas to podu farmers under the FRA or resign to their posts, he demanded.
