Date:13/11/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/11/13/stories/2004111304080400.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Curbs on kin of slain naxals to go

By Our Staff Reporter

The Home Minister, K. Jana Reddy, listening to the relatives of `martyrs' from Nalgonda and Medak districts whose memorials were being pulled down by the police in their districts at his residence in Hyderabad on Friday.

HYDERABAD, NOV. 12. The Home Minister, K. Jana Reddy, on Friday assured a delegation of family members of slain naxalites that he would ask the police in the districts not to harass them in any way and allow them to finish building memorial columns (`stupas').

The assurance came when a group of relatives of several slain naxalites, accompanied by the Miryalguda MLA of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Julakanti Ranga Reddy and office-bearers of the "Amarula Bandumithrula Committee" called on him at his residence this morning.

They narrated instances where the police had either "pulled down" some structures in some cases or stopped them from hosing water for `curing' the cement structures. "Please allow us to mourn in peace," they urged after submitting a memorandum.

`Permission must'

Mr. Reddy said it was not as if the police had been asked to pull down the structures and said he would personally ask the police to desist from such actions. He however, also them to ensure that they took prior and proper permission if they wanted to construct memorials for their departed ones.

The committee members, including convenor, Padmakumari and co-convenor, Narsanna appealed to the Government to allow the kin of the slain naxalites to construct memorial columns and direct the police machinery not to create hurdles. They also demanded the withdrawal of all cases foisted in this connection.

In the memorandum they said, "People had been subjected to severe repression in the TDP regime and they gave vent to their anger by defeating the party.

Thanks to the respite they got after the Congress came to power, people pooled resources and energies to build columns in memory of their sons and daughters who were killed in encounters.''