Ongole: Civil rights activists demand release of their leaders

Ongole: Viplava Rachayitala Sangham leader G Kalyana Rao and leaders of public fronts and organisations demanded that the government stop harassing their leaders and lift off the cases booked on their leaders and release them unconditionally.

Speaking at a press meet in Ongole on Thursday, Kalyana Rao and others explained that the state police have booked fabricated cases against 30 leaders of human rights, Dalit, literary, workers' rights, and other allied organisations, one at Munchingput police station as 47/2020 on November 23 and another at Pidururalla police station as 66/2020 on November 24 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Sedition, and other acts. They informed that the police have arrested seven leaders of the organisations in the last fortnight and arrested one more person, Jangala Koteswara Rao, the general secretary of Praja Kalamandali after terrorising his family members at his residence in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

They claimed that they were working democratically and constitutionally against the undemocratic and unconstitutional acts of the government. They said that the efforts of the government to scuffle their voices by using police force was nothing but killing the freedom of speech guaranteed to all citizens by the constitution. They demanded the government to immediately release Jangala Koteswara Rao and others and remove the untrue cases.

The Progressive Organisation for Women state secretary Ch Padma, Patriotic Democratic Movement leader K Venkaiah, Organisation for the Protection of Democratic Rights state vice president Chavali Sudhakar Rao, Progressive Democratic Students Union state vice president L Rajasekhar, Praja Kalamandali district secretary Piduguralla Srinivas, Praja Natyamandali Ramakrishna, Chenetha Janasamakhya Siva Prasad, Civil Society Narasimha Rao, BC Federation leader Utukuri Venkateswarlu and others also participated in the meeting.