Dumping of garbage from Anakapalle commenced at Achayyapeta under Sundarayyapeta Panchayat near the jaggery town under police protection on Friday morning. Later in the day criminal cases were filed against 20 persons, including two women.
Police personnel reached the village in large numbers and removed by force the villagers who are opposing the shifting of dumping yard from Anakapalle to their village.
After they removed the men, including general secretary of AP Vyavasaya Vrittidarula Union P.S. Ajay Kumar, the police personnel pulled out the women from their homes and took them to Anakapalle rural, Kasimkota, Sabbavaram and Munagapaka police stations, according to reports reaching here. Only children, who joined the protest with their parents in the morning, were left in the village. About 100 people, who took out a protest rally at Krishnapuram against the illegal dumping of garbage at Achayyapeta, were allegedly lathicharged.
The villagers argued that an order passed by a Division Bench of the High Court on a petition filed against three municipalities, barring municipalities from dumping garbage outside their municipal limits, is meant for the entire State. They also said neither the villagers gave their consent to the dumping yard nor the dumping yard received permission from the AP Pollution Control Board.
In the afternoon all women, except wife of Mr. Ajay Kumar P.S. Kotamma and Lovamma, who were detained at different police stations, were taken to Kasimkota police station. It was learnt that a close associate of Minister for Infrastructure and Investments Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Paruchuri Bhaskara Rao was rebuked when he offered to get them released on bail if they stopped protesting against dumping yard in their village. Later, all the women were released on personal bonds.
Their release was presumably due to a civil rights activist Jeshwin of Hyderabad calling Collector V. Sheshadri on people’s protest against the dumping yard and pointing out that even women were taken into custody.
The villagers were still of the opinion that the Collector was not properly briefed about the issue by local officials.
