VIJAYAWADA: State police brass is of the opinion that the ‘Chalo Atmakur’ campaign launched by TDP president and former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu in protest against alleged attacks on his party workers by the ruling YSRC, is politically motivated and intended to demoralise the police force.
A senior police official, on condition of anonymity, wondered as to how a senior-most politician and three-time chief minister can make baseless allegations that could demoralise police force and cast aspersion on their integrity.
In a damage control exercise, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Ravi Shankar Ayyanar and Guntur Rural Superintendent of Police R Jayalakshmi on Saturday convened a media conference to rebut the allegations of TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu that the State police were supporting the ruling YSRC and filing false cases against his partymen.
Ravi Shankar reiterated that the situation in the State and, in the Palnadu region in particular, is peaceful.
“The allegations that people are leaving villages fearing YSRC attacks made in the two booklets (submitted to the DGP last month by TDP leaders) were fabricated and have plenty of factual errors. The booklets lack sanctity and truth,’’ Ravi Shankar said.
The police officials said they had thoroughly verified each and every issue mentioned in the booklets released by the TDP during the ‘Chalo Atmakur’ campaign and found that most of them were false.
They said that all the clashes reported after elections were fall out of old rivalries (among the villagers) and were not political in nature.
“In the booklets, TDP leaders alleged that as many as 545 people left their villages and took shelter in their relatives or YSRC Badhithula Sibhiram (organised by the TDP) in Guntur. The fact is that a few names mentioned in the booklets were repeated twice and thrice. Also, the names of people who did not leave their village were added.
"The actual number of people who left their villages was 345. We sent 312 of them back home and 33 are working outside. While 76 people who never left the village were mentioned in the booklet,” the ADGP said.
“The case in point is death of a buffalo. The TDP leaders claimed that it died in the clashes. But, the fact is that the buffalo died of ill-health and the owner even claimed insurance.
"Most of the incidents are distorted to blame police for political gains,” the ADGP said.
Guntur Rural SP Jayalakshmi reiterated that the Palnadu region is peaceful and no incidents of murder have taken place after elections.