The TDP on Wednesday launched a padayatra from Rachapalle near Makavarapalem where Anrak Aluminium Ltd has its refinery on a host of demands.
The 80-km padayatra by TDP leader Chintakayala Vijay was flagged off by his father and district TDP president Ayyanna Patrudu in the morning. A host of leaders including MLAs K.S.N. Raju and G. Rama Naidu, CPI district secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy, TDP district general secretary Kona Tata Rao, former MLAs Vechalapu Srirama Murthy and G. Demudu, TDP Visakhapatnam city unit president G. Demudu and local BJP leaders were present at the flagging off and participated up to a distance.
The TDP protest is mainly focussing on the resolutions made at a meeting the then minister Konathala Ramakrishna, the district Collector and Mr. Ayyanna Patrudu, then MLA of Narsipatnam and other leaders participated, ahead of a public hearing in 2008.
The party was demanding action on the storage tank alleging that it depleted groundwater, a reported shift from a gas-based power plant to coal-based one, not giving two cents of land and two dairy cattle for farmers who had lost land, issue of rehabilitation (R) cards, a job for every household, two cents of land and money for construction of houses at Venkaiahpalem for those who lost land and compensation to those in possession of government land, according to Mr. Tata Rao. The party also expressed concern over environmental issues and a pending RTI application on it.
The padayatra will reach Visakhapatnam on Friday and a rally taken out from Ambedkar statue to the Collector’s Office and a representation submitted.
