Collectorate resonates with protests

Ongole: The Prakasam district collectorate resonated with various protests with demands from the journalists, teachers, factory employees, AgriGold victims and others on Monday. The Andhra Pradesh Journalists Forum organised a protest in front of the collectorate demanding the Union government to respect the Andhra Pradesh bifurcation act and implement all promises made to the state in the bill along with the prime minister’s promise of Special Category Status for Andhra Pradesh.
 
The leaders from the political parties, public fronts along with the president of APJF Chevula Krishnanjaneyulu, social activist and film critic Kathi Mahesh, Anna Hazare follower and crusader for various public interest bills, Sivarao from Tamil Nadu participated in the protest. 

The APJF vice-president, P Siva Rajesh, district secretary Sowridas and other forum members participated in the protest. The Telugu Nadu Upadhyaya Sangham (TNUS) also protested in front of the collectorate with the similar demands on Monday. 

The ZP vice-chairman, Nukasani Balaji started the protest by garlanding the TNUS district president Nadipineni Venkata Rao, state secretaries A Rambabu, R Subbarao and others. They demanded for the steel plant at Kadapa, funds for Polavaram project, bridge the financial deficit, construct Ramayap

atnam port, cancel contributory pension system, increase income tax limit to Rs 5 lakh etc. The employees of Mahi Agro Products at the Gundlapalli protested in front of the collectorate, demanding that the Collector intervene for release of the long-pending salaries.

 The employees’ leaders A Rajesh Babu, N Haribabu and others said that the company was not paying salaries for the last five months and their families were suffering with hunger. They said that their children were forced out of school as they didn’t clear the dues in the last few months. 

They submitted to the Collector in the memorandum that they were living with meager salaries of Rs 10,000 per month and the company was not paying any bonuses for last 12 years. The AgriGold victims and their family members also staged a protest in front of the collectorate for immediate justice. 

They said that due to the delay in providing justice, many more agents and their family members had been losing lives and demanded that the government show commitment in finding the solution for AgriGold issue.