Andhra Pradesh - Ongole   

Protests galore over Sompeta police firing

ONGOLE: As the state-owned power generation corporation (APGenco) gears up for setting up the Rs.16,000-crore Voderavu thermal project in collaboration with the BHEL13 villages in the Nagalpadu mandal of Prakasam district observed a bandh on Thursday in protest against the killing of two people in police firing in Sompeta in Srikakulam on Wednesday.

Shops and business establishments as also educational institutions remained closed. Following the protest, vehicular traffic to Chirala from here was disrupted.

Leading the protest, GENCO Vithareka Porata Udhima Committee leader T. Veeraiah Choudhary in Kanaparthi symbolically burnt the effigy of the Rosaiah Government. The struggle against the GENCO-BHEL project would be intensified, he asserted.

Meanwhile, opposition TDP and CPI activists staged protest marches in Ongole town demanding the resignation of Revenue Minister D. Prasada Rao owning moral responsibility for the police firing, judicial inquiry by a sitting High Court judge and an ex gratia of Rs.10 lakh for the two persons deceased in Sompeta and one lakh each to those injured. The agitators also burnt the effigy of the Congress government.

As much as 2,000 acres of land is required for the mega thermal project, according to official sources.

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