Samaikyandhra stir grips Srikakulam

Srikakulam: The Samaikyandhra movement, which has been going on for the past four weeks in protest against the bifurcation of the State has engulfed the town on Thursday. The construction labourers took out a massive rally in the town. Later, they formed a human chain at the statue of Potti Sriramulu near the old bus stand. Women washed the statue of Potti Sriramulu with the waters collected from the sacred rivers of Nagavali and Vamsadhara. They hung placards with the names of Sonia Gandhi, Digvijay Singh and Botcha Satyanarayana around the necks of the sheep. The teachers who were on a relay hunger strike, took out a huge rally on motor cycles. They dressed one of the girls as Telugu Thalli. Later, they formed a motor cycle chain near the Seven Roads Junction.

Speaking to the media here on Thursday, one of the women leaders Gunda Lakshmidevi said that the state would progress and develop only if it was kept united. She said that the employees and teachers would suffer a lot if Seemandhra was cut off from Hyderabad. She expressed happiness that women in large numbers were joining the agitation to keep the state united.

Sportspersons also joined the agitation demanding the state to be united in Ichhapuram where they participated in a huge rally. They played a lot of games like kho kho, kabaddi, karate, kolatam and long jump. As they played these games on the national highway and at various junctions, traffic was disrupted in several parts of the town for more than an hour.

Speaking to the media, Ms Jayalakshmi, a lecturer in Physical Education Department said that the state should be kept united in the interests of all the regions. She said that the Seemandhra people would suffer a lot and incur heavy losses if the state was divided.

Novel protests were witnessed in the town on Thursday against the decision to bifurcate the state. The employees of the Revenue department played games and sang songs at the Collectorate. Some of the employees were on relay hunger strikes for the past 18 days. One of the employees Ananda Rao, dressed himself as a chimpanzee, participated in the hunger strike.

Speaking to the media, Ananda Rao said that the people of Seemandhra region toiled hard for the development of Hyderabad and also invested lot of money. How can the Central government now say that Hyderabad does not belong to the Seemandhras, he asked.

Ramu, another employee and supporter of Samaikyandhra, said that they would continue their struggle till the Central government rescinds its decision to divide the state. He said that the entire state would suffer if it was bifurcated.