Amaravati stir needs to be taken to next level, says Narayana

Vijayawada: CPI national secretary K Narayana opined that the movement for Amaravati should go to the next level - to the common capital city of Hyderabad and Delhi to bring awareness among people all over the country.

He was addressing the round-table meeting organised by the Joint Action Committee of the Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi here on Saturday.

Expressing solidarity with the agitating farmers in Amaravati, the CPI leader said that people of other cities should also be made part of the agitation.

TDP leader and former MLA Vangaveeti Radhakrishna said Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was humiliating the farmers by ignoring their genuine protest.

He however expressed happiness that all parties and associations are united for the cause of Amaravati. He made it clear that they would succeed in retaining Amaravati as the capital city.

TDP official spokesperson Varla Ramaiah said that the JAC was functioning in an effective way and there is no necessity for a political JAC. All parties should work united under the banner of the JAC, he opined. He questioned the Ministers whether it was right to give a call to people to obstruct TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu's visit to Visakhapatnam.

JAC convener A Siva Reddy regretted that neither the Centre nor the State government are yet to respond to the protests in Amaravati even after 50 farmers during the last two months.

He said that all political parties were united to protect capital Amaravati following the thoughtless decision of the State government. "It was not proper to spread rumours that the JAC members were going to lay siege to the residence of former Union Minister and actor Chiranjeevi's house in Hyderabad," he said.

BJP leader Vamaraju Satyamurthy said that their party had differences with Chandrababu Naidu but found fault with the act of the YSRCP leaders who had obstructed him in Visakhapatnam. Expressing solidarity with the JAC, he said that the capital issue was not confined to people of mere 29 villages but to the people of the entire State.

Political analyst Lakshminarayana expressed concern over the non-implementation of the AP Reorganisation Act though the State suffered had heavy loss after the division of the State.

Journalist Rajinder said that the farmers who tried to help the State have become helpless now. He said that it was not proper to file criminal cases against farmers for demanding the capital city. He took exception to the abduction of JAC member Vamsikrishna by the police. He demanded ex gratia to the families of the farmers who died in the agitation.

Rajani, retired professor of Nagarjuna University, SC farmer from Amaravati Martin Luther, CPI leader Muppalla Nageswara Rao, former ZP chairperson Gadde Anuradha, Jana Sena leader Potina Mahesh, CPM leader Ch Babu Rao, Congress leader Sunkara Padmasri and others spoke.

The round-table resolved demanding payment of ex gratia to the families of farmers who had died, extension of JAC programmes to all the 13 districts and in Hyderabad, to meet the top leaders in Delhi, demanding the police to stop the drone operations in Amaravati, urging police not to misuse the SC,ST Atrocities Act and withdrawal of criminal cases filed against women.