Amaravati farmers pause Padyatra over standoff with police

Amaravati: Amaravati farmers on Saturday decided to temporarily stop their Maha Padyatra to protest against police action which was creating hurdles in their long march.

The organisers announced that they will resume the long march after the High Court’s decision on their petition. Since there are holidays for the court currently, they decided to give a four-day break to the Padyatra for four days.

The decision was taken after the police allegedly created hurdles when the farmers were about to resume their march on 41st day from Ramachandrapuram in Ambedkar Konaseema district.

The Maha Padyatra from Amaravati to Arasavalli in Srikakulam district, launched last month, is to demand that the state government drop the proposal of three state capitals and develop Amaravati as the only capital.

On Saturday morning, a large number of policemen surrounded a function hall where farmers were staying and stopped people who came to express solidarity with the participants in the Padyatra.

There was an argument between the farmers and police when the latter insisted that the participants show their identity cards and made it clear that only those vehicles which have prior permission will be allowed in the Padyatra.

The police officers cited the orders of the High Court that not more than 600 people should participate in the Padyatra. They told the organisers that as per the court order there is no permission for people who came to express solidarity to participate in the march.

Leaders of the Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi (APS) and Amaravati Joint Action Committee (JAC) alleged that the government and the police were trying to create hurdles in their Padyatra.

They held a meeting and decided to resume Padyatra only after the matter is decided by the High Court.

The leaders alleged that the police mercilessly beat up women at Pasalapudi village on Friday. APS leader G. Tirupati Rao said they were worried about the safety of women.

Many participants were injured in a clash between supporters of Padayatra and the police. The police had stopped the padayatra and asked those who joined the Padayatra to express their solidarity not to walk along with the listed 600 participants.

Farmers questioned the police action on the ground that they have been participating in the Yatra for more than a month.

On a petition by APS on alleged attacks on participants in the long march, the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday directed the police to ensure that those having arival opinion’ on Maha Padayatra were not present in the proximity of the aggrieved farmers keeping in view the apprehension that anti-social elements could infiltrate the Padayatra and cause a law and order problem.

Justice Raghunandan Rao reiterated that the farmers’ procession could not consist of more than 600 persons whose details had already been furnished to the police, and ordered the police to not allow others to participate in the rally.

He also directed that the persons seeking to express solidarity should do so only from the sidelines and not by joining the procession.

He ordered the petitioners and the official respondents to see to it that not more than four vehicles were part of the Padayatra and it followed the approved route map. The case has been posted on October 27 for further hearing.

The government submitted that there were many violations of the directions issued by the court earlier, due to which the permission granted for the Maha Padayatra warranted a review. He observed that the speeches made by participants in the Padayatra were abusive and directed against some persons at the helm of affairs.

The Padyatra with the slogan ‘Build Amaravati Save Andhra Pradesh’ began from Amaravati on September 12 and is proposed to conclude at Arasavalli in Srikakulam district on November 11 after passing through 16 districts.

It is aimed at mounting pressure on the government to complete the constructions and infrastructure creation in Amaravati as ordered by the High Court on March 3, 2022.

A bench of three judges had pronounced the judgment on March 3 on 75 petitions filed by Amaravati farmers and others challenging the government’s move for trifurcation of the state capital.

After coming to power in 2019, the YSRCP had reversed the decision of the previous TDP government to develop Amaravati as the only state capital. It decided to develop three state capitals — Amaravati, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool.

This had triggered massive protests from farmers of Amaravati, who had given 33,000 acres of land for the capital.