Andhra Pradesh

Kolleru villagers petition Naidu

Sympathetic hearing: TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu trying his hand at `mavus’, fish-catching devices, at Agadalalanka in West Godavari district on Tuesday.

AGADALALANKA (WEST GODAVARI DIST): Ramulamma, a septuagenarian fisherwoman from Kolletikota, was seen with folded hands approaching the security personnel outside the `chaitanyaradham’ of TDP president and former Chief Minister N. Chandrbabu Naidu early in the morning with a plea at this fishermen habitation, “ Kindly, let me see him and talk to him once about my plight”. “I have come all the way from my village falling under Krishna district by spending Rs 20 towards transport charges to lighten my heart by sharing my agony with him (Mr. Naidu),” Ramulamma insists. Like Ramulamma, hundreds of fisher folks, mostly women, reached Mr. Naidu’s chaitanyaradham from several belt and bed villages of Kolleru much before he woke up on Tuesday to convey their “suffering” caused by the Government-sponsored Operation Kolleru programme.

Mr. Naidu drove to this village, the heart of Kolleru, around 3.30 am on Tuesday after winding up his programme in Krishna district to make a night halt. As Mr. Naidu emerged from his chariot around 11 am to embark on his day’s schedule, a large number of people, who waited for a few hours since morning braving the summer heat from rooftops and other vantage points, lustily cheered him and poured out their woes. The TDP president received first-hand information from locals on how they were `shabbily’ treated by the Government while the Operation Kolleru programme was undertaken.

Addressing a press conference later, Mr. Naidu said the inept handling of the Kolleru operation by the Government had resulted in loss of habitat for about three lakh fishermen within and around the lake.

The Kolleru villages wore a deserted look now due to an exodus of fishermen to far-off places like Bangalore and Mumbai in search of employment after the dismantling of fishponds, he said. “After all, the Government has not allowed even agriculture in traditional method in spite of court’s permission, what do the fishermen do. It’s quite inhuman on the part of the Government,” Mr. Naidu criticised.

Meanwhile, the press conference held in an open place within the lake turned into a forum for the angry fisher folks to target the Government and even the media for its alleged biased coverage pertaining to the Kolleru operation right in the presence of Mr. Naidu. Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao, sarpanch of Agadalalanka, accused the administration of dismantling fishponds in his 70 acres of `girati’ land in the lake just for the reason that he fought and won the gram panchayat elections allegedly against the wishes of the ruling party. He alleged that the rehabilitation package offered by the Government for the affected fishermen was extended only to a section of them close to the ruling party, leaving TDP sympathisers high and dry.

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