Activists of women organisations, who are up in arms against the proposed beauty contest ‘Miss Vizag-2017’, continued their protest on Monday.
Dressed in black, a group of women staged a protest near the Telugu Talli statue at Maddilapalem here and the police swung into action rounding them up and bodily lifting them into a police van.
While the women police were bundling the activists one after the other into the vehicle, the sari of one of the protesters was torn off mounting the tension. Alleging that it was the second such incident during their protest against the ‘Miss Vizag-2017’ contest that aims at projecting the women in a bad light, All India Democratic Women’s Association State president B. Prabhavathi said the police were merciless towards them and trying to suppress the agitation. “Yesterday it was A. Vimala of National Federation of Indian Women and today I became the victim of high-handed behaviour of the police,” she pointed out.
Agitators alleged that the police were callous in handling those who arrived at the venue to stage a protest.
“As soon as we gathered at Maddilapalem junction, the police dragged and forcibly taken us to the vehicle. They arrested 13 women activists,” lamented M. Lakshmi, State general secretary of Progressive Organisation for Women.
Representatives of women organisations, however, vowed to continue their protest till the pageant was cancelled.
Some of the women police said that the protesters were adamant and unwilling to leave the place.
“We are only doing our duty and even some of us sustained injuries in the process,” said a woman police.
