VIJAYAWADA: With the police issuing notices under Section 149 of the CrPC to the farmers and representatives of Amaravati Parirakshana Joint Action Committee (JAC) restricting them to stage protests ahead of the Assembly session from Monday, villagers of the capital region, who have been agitating for the last 32 days against the State government’s three-Capital proposal, intensified their protests on Saturday.
Soon after the news broke that the police issued notices to the farmers and villagers, scores of women agitators staged sit-ins in Mandadam and Thullur and raised slogans against Jagan Mohan Reddy. They demanded an explanation from the CM on why was he yet to respond on the issue, and also held him responsible for the 19 deaths reported in the last month.
"Only because of him, 19 people have died after suffering from depression caused due to the plan of shifting the Capital. Instead of coming up with a statement or an assurance, he enjoyed sadistic pleasure all these days. The farmers have lost confidence in him," Mandadam villagers fumed.
The Assembly session will be conducted for three days, starting January 20, to decide on Amaravati’s future. The notices were issued only as a part of preventive measures as Opposition and JAC leaders had reportedly given a call to lay seige the Assembly and organise ‘jail bharo’ and ‘raasta roko’ on Monday.
"Only to prevent farmers and agitators from creating tension and public nuisance, we issued notices under Section 149 of the CrPC and it has nothing to do with their protests. They can stage a protest without disturbing the public and traffic," Thullur DSP Srinivas Reddy said.
Claiming that the YSRC government was targeting one section of the society with its plan to distribute capital functions among three cities, farmers in the Velagapudi staged a relay hunger strike. "We still cannot understand the need for Jagan to shift the capital when the previous government started construction works and had spent thousands of crores on it," a farmer rued.