Massive protest rallies were taken out at many places across the State on Sunday to express solidarity with the farmers and residents of the villages located in the Amaravati region, who had been agitating for the last 299 days in support of their demand that the government drop its plan to shift the capital out of Amaravati, to Visakhapatnam.
The Amaravati agitation will complete 300 days on Monday.
Leaders of the opposition parties and representatives of various organisations had expressed solidarity for the cause at an all-party meeting organised by leaders of the Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi Joint Action Committee (JAC) recently.
A large number of farmers and members of the Amaravati Mahila JAC started in a rally from Thullur holding green flags and raising slogans of ‘Jai Amaravati’.
Farmers from Anantavaram, Nekkalu, Rayapudi, Velagapudi, Borupalem, Venkatayapalem and Krishnayapalem participated in the rally.
Amaravati Mahila JAC member and Congress leader Sunkara Padmasri warned Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy against incurring the wrath of women.
She said the Chief Minister’s indifference to the cause of the farmers reflected his arrogance. The farmers of the region had given 33,000 acres to the government to develop a new capital, but Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy was hell bent on ruining this region, she alleged.
Mild tension
In Guntur, the JAC leaders staged a dharna at the Shankar Vilas junction. Leaders of the TDP, the BJP and the Left parties participated in the protest. At one point, there was mild tension when the police stopped the leaders from going ahead with a rally that followed the dharna.
Participating in the protest, former Minister Nakka Anand Babu lambasted the government for his “indifference to the aspirations of five-crore people” of the State. He said not just the TDP and other parties but also people of the entire State wanted Amaravati to continue as the single capital.
The leaders said that the YSRCP government was trying to suppress the agitation by giving it a caste colour while the fact was that over 70% of the population in the region comprised Dalits and weaker sections.
An attempt by the city Congress leaders to take out a rally on the BRTS Road in Vijayawada was foiled by the police who placed them under house arrest.
Former Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao participated in a farmers’ rally at Mylavaram and said that the Amaravati struggle had turned into a people’s movement and none could suppress it now.
