JSP's march draws huge crowds in Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam: Thousands of of volunteers from all walks of life including construction workers, 'Jana Sainiks' and students from various colleges along with Jana Sena Party supporters and leaders joined the much-awaited long march with the Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan at Maddilapalem Junction near Telugu Thalli statue here on Sunday.

The long march scheduled to begin at 3 pm started off a little before 4:30 pm. With glass symbol printed party flags fluttering high all along the path, the long march covered over 2.5 kms. The march reached Old Jail Road by passing through Maddilapalem, Asilmetta and GVMC Office.

Waving at people and holding his hands in a formal namaste, Pawan Kalyan boarded a four-wheeler to commence his march. The roads were bursting at the seams as large crowds gathered to get a glimpse of the JSP chief and greet him. Police had a tough time in controlling the crowd as the numbers swelled when the march progressed further.

Traffic at Maddilapalem, Rama Talkies, Asilmetta Junction, GVMC Office, Gollalapalem Junction came to a standstill as restrictions were placed by the police and there were no vehicular movement all along the route. Pawan Kalyan lamented that he would get security cover even in international destinations.

"However, the police here did not bother much about it as only 70 of them were deployed for the march. But nothing stops me from marching ahead if I decided to take any initiative forward," Pawan Kalyan said.

The long march was followed by a public meeting at the Old Jail Road. Speaking ahead of the meeting, JSP leader K Nagababu said that even YSRCP would not have expected that the sand issue would have taken such an ugly turn. The new sand policy of the government continues to cost the life of construction workers dearly across all districts in the state, he stated.

Terming the government as 'sadistic', TDP former minister K Atchannaidu said that development in the state had come to a standstill due to sand problem. Hailing the move of the JSP chief, he said that the construction workers have been suffering for the past five months due to sand crisis.

"It is unfortunate that the pleas of construction workers are falling on deaf ears. Pressure should be mounted on government to resolve the sand crisis," he said. Former TDP minister Ch Ayyannapatrudu urged the people to elect the right leader as many were suffering due to the absence of good governance.

JSP leader Nadendla Manohar asserted that the party was not aiming at scoring any brownie with the long march. "We sought support from all parties as sand crisis is not a political concern but of people's issue," he said.