VISAKHAPATNAM: The authorities were caught unawares by a sudden squatting by fishermen from Dibbapalem delaying the departure of Union Minister for Mines T. Subbarami Reddy by an hour on Thursday.

Fishermen barged into the rest house and raised slogans against Pendurthy MLA Tippala Gurumurthy Reddy when the Minister was briefing reporters after holding a review meeting with District Collector A.K. Singhal and other officials on the status of various schemes.

Anticipating trouble, Mr. Singhal immediately alerted Commissioner of Police V.S.K. Kaumudi and sent Revenue Divisional Officer M. Venkateswara Rao and District Revenue Officer S. Satyanarayana for negotiating with the fishermen. Mr. Gurumurthy Reddy, was present at the media briefing, was also asked by the Minister to have a dialogue with the fisherfolk.

The fishermen squatted for some time and blocked the way to the Circuit House demanding inclusion of their names in the list of beneficiaries for losing houses due to construction of Gangavaram Port. They criticised the laying of stone for housing colony at Dayalnagar for the affected fishermen by Mr. Gurumurthy Reddy on Thursday morning without inviting the village elders and genuine fishermen. They said 375 bogus fishermen had been included in the list of beneficiaries.

Mr. Singhal later promised that they would consider all the genuine claims and hence, they should not feel agitated. Policemen were deployed from various police stations to avoid untoward incident at the Circuit House.

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