Cops foil bid by seers to protest against conversions

Ongole: The Prakasam district police foiled the ‘Chalo Ongole’ programme of seers from various parts of the state on Sunday. The swamijis and their followers were prevented at two toll gates from reaching Valluramma temple at Valluru near here and sent back to avoid any law and order problem before Christmas.

The Saivakshetra Peethadhipati Siva Swami, Viswa Hindu Parishad and other Hindu organisations called for Chalo Ongole on Sunday, to protest against the illegal religious conversions and availing of reservations by converted people. They had sent invitations to 100 swamijis of various temples, peethams in the state and neighboring states to participate in the agitation from Valluramma temple near here, along with their disciples.

On Sunday, the police stopped the vehicles of seers, their disciples and devotees at the Tangutur and Bollapalli tollgates and asked them to go back to avoid unnecessary tensions. The police said that they didn’t give any permission to the meeting in the temple and asked the 100 plus people who reached the temple to immediately leave the premises after a darshan of of the deity.

After confrontation with police, Dayananda Swami, chief of Dattatreya Matham in Nellore, said at the temple that the government was insulting Hindus by cooperating with others. He demanded to know why Hindus need a permission to meet in the temple and why didn’t the other religions need the same.

The police took Siva Swamy and his disciples into custody for protesting at Bollapalli tollgate and obstructing traffic and shifted them to Yaddhanapudi police station. Several other swamijis, including Srinivasananda, Sankarananda, Hindu Dharma Raksha Samiti president Chalasani Balaramaiah, Bajrangdal state pramukh Gopi and shifted them to nearby police stations and released them all in the evening around 6 pm.

Later, Siva Swami, explaining the aim of the gathering, said that a lot of people were constructing religious centres illegally beside the Hindu temples and using mike sets to disturb the peaceful atmosphere of surroundings.

He said that the people from other religions were entering government service through reservation system in jobs and insulting the Hindus. He demanded the government to take action against the illegal construction of religious structures and employees who were still using reservations under Dalit quota despite having converted to other religions.