Pall of gloom descends on Munagalapalem

Tirupati: A pall of gloom descended on the sleepy hamlet of Munagalapalem, where 12 of the victims of Yerpedu tragedy belong.The bodies were brought to the village on Friday night on the banks of the dried up Swarnamukhi river - the root cause of the sorrow of the bereaved families, for their final journey, after autopsy at SVRR government hospital, Tirupati, amidst screaming and wailing of the dear and near ones echoing in the otherwise non-descript village having just four lanes comprising 100 families.

Highlights:

• 12 of the 15 deceased in the tragedy were from the village
• Relatives of the deceased blame sand mafia, police and leaders of the ruling party for their loss
• People of the village allege that a TDP ZPTC member is working hand-in-glove with sand mafia
• They pour out their woes before Minister Lokesh

People huddled in small groups standing, speaking in low tone, were seen harking back on the golden days of the village with rich cultivation before the eyes of sand mafia eyes fell on the river nearby and also the subsequent struggle by the villagers to end the menace of sand smugglers. They also not missed a chance to imprecate the sand mafia, indicting the officials and also the leaders of ruling party for allowing the sand mafia to have a free hand on the river.

Heartrending scenes prevailed in the entire village. No one was able to console the grief-stricken families, who were seen struggling hard to cope with tragic situation. The sight at the house of Kodandapani, a differently-abled who lost his life along with his father Munikrishnama Naidu in the Yerpedu accident, inexplicable with the family members remain weeping, even as the relatives trying in vain to calm them.The family of another victim Sumathi, recalled her spirited fight with fellow villagers against the sand mafia.

The woman aggrieved at the water source hit with the indiscriminate quarrying of sand in the river, leaving their land barren, joined the band wagon fighting to end sand smuggling.The village witnessed stream of leaders of political parties, who came one after another to visit the bereaved family to have a word of consolation with them.The folks could not control their emotions and burst out when IT Minister Nara Lokesh came along with a host of party leaders including two ministers - minister for municipal administration P Narayana and industries minister N Amaranatha Reddy and former minister and local MLA B Gopalakrishna Reddy.

They bitterly complained against officials more so the police and revenue and not spared the ruling TDP leaders from their wrath. They openly accused Yerpedu ZPTC Dhananjaya Naidu of joining hands with sand mafia. They are mining the sand with JCB’s leading to the villagers to revolt; they informed Lokesh and other ministers.Former minister Gopalakrishna Reddy faced a wrath of a woman, when he spoke about the government providing compensation. The woman seething with anger seen saying,” I will give ten lakh will you bring back life of my husband.”

The ruling party leaders along with officials paid their respects to the mortal remains.Leaders belonging to other parties including former Congress MP Chintha Mohan, YSR Congress party district convener and MLA K Narayana Swamy and CPI Tirupati City president Penchalaiah were among those visited the bereaved families in Munagalapalem.Penchalaih gave a memorandum to Lokesh seeking stern action on sand mafia, besides hiking the compensation to the bereaved families to Rs 25 lakhs.It may be noted that among the 15 people died 12 from Mungalapalem, one Rachapalem and two from Musalipedu.

By V Pradeep Kumar