The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Combing intensified ahead of public hearing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 26, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Combing intensified ahead of public hearing

Staff Reporter

MELLACHERUVU (NALGONDA DT.): Even as the Pollution Control Board is making arrangements to conduct an environmental public hearing again on the controversial Pulichintala project on April 27, an uneasy calm prevails in villages situated along the Krishna in Mellacheruvu mandal.

While the Government is determined to construct the project at any cost, the Maoists have been covertly mobilising public opinion against it.

The Maoists have reportedly warned people's representatives against participating in the public hearing.

To foil the Maoists' attempts, the police have intensified combing. Special party police are going around Krishnapatti villages. "Combing parties are inside the area and we are on the job of identifying militants and troublemakers," the Officer on Special Duty, Ravinder, told The Hindu .

He said some 200 personnel had been deployed at various places to prevent any untoward incident during the public hearing.

The naxals had made their intentions clear by blasting the house of the former ZPTC member, Nagi Reddy, at Tammavaram on April 1.

He was thrashed by naxalites for airing his views in support of the project. The naxals also warned the villagers of dire consequences if they went Nagi Reddy's way.

Plaque vandalised

The Maoists, who in 2002 had blasted the foundation stone laid by the then Chief Minister, N. T. Rama Rao in 1988, vandalised the plaque erected at the site where the Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, performed bhoomi puja on October 15, 2004.

Disturbed by the series of incidents the Police Department even wanted to construct a police station at Vajinepally.

It may be recalled that opponents of the project had alleged that the police had prevented villagers from attending the public hearing on November 10, 2004 at Mellacheruvu.

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