Farmers enter Rajahmundry through Gammon Bridge

Rajamahendravaram (East Godavari district): Amaravati farmers' padayatra entered Rajahmundry amid tense atmosphere through the Gammon Bridge on Monday afternoon. The Amaravati to Arasavalli Farmers' Maha Padayatra entered 36th day on Monday. The march, which started from Kovvur on Monday morning with thousands of farmers and supporters of various parties, reached Venkatadri Function Hall in Katheru by noon. Farmers entered Gammon Bridge from Kovvur via LIC Centre, Vijayavihar, Bus Stand Centre and Meraka Veedhi Water Tank.

As per the schedule initially decided, this padayatra should reach Rajahmundry via the road-cum-rail bridge in Rajahmundry. However, as this bridge was closed for repairs from Friday, the farmers of Amaravati chose Gammon Bridge as an alternative route. Due to this, the distance of the padayatra was increased by 10 km.

Police imposed restrictions on the march undertaken by the farmers with the demand that Amaravati should be the sole capital. Cops initially objected the farmers from going over the Gammon bridge and tried to give a notice to the JAC leaders to change their route as Home Minister Taneti Vanitha is organising a meeting at the same time. But the JAC leaders did not take the notice and made it clear that they will go to the court again. Then the police retreated as the farmers had declared their stand firmly that they would stay here and go to Rajahmundry at any cost.

Many police personnel were deployed throughout the trip. Police also demanded the farmer JAC leaders to provide the details of the participants in the yatra, names of the political party leaders and the information of the route.

Kovvur TDP leaders J Subbaraya Chowdary and K Ramakrishna Rao told the reporters that the padayatra reached Rajahmundry with the support of thousands of people.

They said the YSRCP government is afraid of the public reaction and closed the road-cum-rail bridge on the pretext of repairs. They claimed that not even a small piece of work was done on the bridge for the last two days.

Vangaveeti Radha, Devineni Uma, Peethala Sujatha, KS Jawahar, Paritala Sriram, Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary, Adireddy Srinivas and other prominent leaders of Telugu Desam Party walked along with the farmers in the padayatra.

CPM leaders staged a demonstration in support of the farmers' yatra. Activists and leaders of BJP, Jana Sena and CPI parties also supported the yatra.

While Vangaveeti Radha, Paritala Sriram and others were going to show their support for the padayatra, police stopped them in Rajahmundry.

Cops told them that they were not allowed as there were intelligence warnings of possible untoward incidents. After arguing for some time, the issue was resolved.

Meanwhile, women farmers offered prayers at Goshpada Ghat, Fatkaramma Temple in Kovvur, seeking the Goddess to make the government to change its mind and do justice to them.