OUT OF WATER: Caught from a pond in Kolleru, fish being carted off for marketing near Mondikodu in West Godavari district on Tuesday.

ELURU: The West Godavari district administration seemingly weathered the storm of protest by local fishermen and achieved a major breakthrough in Kolleru operation on Tuesday.

After a lull in the demolition operation for the last four-five days, the administration carried out blasting in a 50-acre fishpond near Mondikodu in the plus five contour of Kolleru without any resistance from locals.

Collector Lav Agarwal, who oversaw the blasting, claimed to have enlisted voluntary support from pond lease-holder Indukuri Satyanarayana Raju for breaching his tank. Hence, the operation was all plain sailing.

Tight security

As a prelude to the blasting, a big contingent of the Andhra Pradesh Special Police deployed to handle the anti-demolition protest took position close to the pond since morning in anticipation of trouble.

According to information, three companies comprising 300 men from three different APSP battalions from Vizianagaram, Kakinada and Mangalagiri descended on the district headquarters by this morning to help the administration execute the Supreme Court orders by flushing out encroaches.

Meanwhile, another pond with an extent of 200 acres in Kokkirayalanka in Beemadolu mandal was also dismantled on Monday night with little resistance from the locals due to "cooperation" by it lease-holders, Jaiymangala Ramana, also a Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) member from Krishna district.

`Consent' letters

The Collector informed that he secured "consent" letters from 28 lease- holders in favour of dismantling their ponds spread over 8,000 acres in plus five contour by March 1. He also claimed that such offers kept pouring in from the inhabitants of several villages in Kolleru from Tuesday.

Mr. Agarwal attributed the hassle-free operation to the rehabilitation package announced by the State Government to create alternative livelihoods for the affected fishermen with their active involvement.

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