Activists of the Joint Action Committee for Unified Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday blocked movement of trains here and at four other places in Krishna district as part of the rail roko agitation. While the Chennai-bound Coromandel Express coming from Howrah was stopped here, Yashwantpur Express in Machilipatnam, Bhimavaram passenger in Mandavalli and two other trains in Gudivada and Gudlavalleru were also stopped by the agitators.
As soon as the Coromandel Express arrived at 10.15 a.m., the activists sat on the railway track and began raising slogans against Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K. Chandrasekhara Rao and Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram. A large number of armed guards of the city police, Government Railway Police and the Railway Protection Force rounded the activists.
Addressing the activists, former MP of the Telugu Desam Party Gadde Rammohan, who managed to climb on to the engine of the train along with a few leaders, said the objective of the movement was to prevent the bifurcation of the State. The Union government took a hasty decision of dividing the State, without considering the opinion of the majority.
“We must continue the agitation till the government made an announcement in favour of the unified State,” he said. JAC co-convener and Congress leader Kolanukonda Sivaji called upon the people to express solidarity with the indefinite hunger strike launched by MP Lagadapat Rajagopal demanding unified State.
Though the train was scheduled to leave the station at 10.35 a.m., there was no signal clearance for five more minutes, as a goods train was moving on the same track. At 10.40 a.m., the police forcibly removed a few activists from the railway track and the others vacated the track on their own.
The train left the station and the activists came back to Mahatma Gandhi road, where Congress and TDP leaders were staging indefinite hunger strike in separate camps.
RPF Inspector M. Sambasiva Rao said cases would be registered against the JAC leaders under Sections 146 (creating nuisance) and 147 (trespassing into the railway area) of the Indian Railways Act.
