Women narrate their woes before NCW fact-finding panel

Amaravati: The women victims of police lathi-charge and police atrocities explained their plight to members of the fact-finding committee of the National Commission for Women on Sunday, during their visit to Thullur in Guntur district.

Women alleged that police brutally harassed them despite knowing the fact that they have been protesting peacefully to achieve their demands in the capital city for the last three-and-half weeks.

The team went to Thullur in , where hundreds of women interacted with the committee and explained about the police forces action in the capital region for the last 26 days.

The NCW team met the women at Thullur after inquiring about the incidents with the local MRO and DSP. The committee members spoke to a few women out of the hundreds that gathered at the meeting venue.

The women alleged that they were beaten up and that they had no information that orders under Section-144 of CrPC were being implemented.

The fact-finding team comprises Kanchan Khattar (Senior Coordinator, NCW), Praveen Singh (Counsellor, NCW) and a local advocate to be nominated by the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA).

The women have explained how the police were using excess force and harassing them and other people for more than three weeks.

They alleged that they were arrested during the night and were kept in the dark regarding the police stations that they were being taken to.

The women explained that they were not even allowed to offer prayers at temples and narrated how they were obstructed when they decided to go to Kanakadurga temple in Vijayawada.

After completing their interaction at Thullur, they straight away went to Vijayawada Club in Tadepalli mandal of Guntur district in the evening and interacted with other women. More than 500 women gathered there.

In fact, the NCW was supposed to visit Mandadam and Velagapudi villages too, but due to the insufficient time, the skipped the programme.

From the Vijayawada Club, they moved to Vijayawada and had interaction with Police Commissioner Dwaraka Tirumala Rao and inquired about the curbs imposed in Vijayawada during the women's protests and their arrests.