Leaders of the Dalit Hakkula Porata Samithi (DHPS) and NAD Zone SC Welfare Association staged a protest at the statue of B.R. Ambedkar at NAD Junction here on Wednesday, condemning the violence in Amalapuram on the issue of renaming Konaseema district as Ambedkar Konaseema district.
Expressing the view that some vested interests were fanning passions based on castes for political reasons, they appealed to them to desist from creating a rift among people of different castes, who were living peacefully in Amalapuram.
There was no Konaseema district in past and it was formed after the State government had created new districts in Andhra Pradesh to take the total to 26. There were demands from all political parties, people’s organisations and Dalit sanghams for the past two months, all over Andhra Pradesh, seeking renaming Konaseema district as Ambedkar Konaseema district, following which the State government had announced renaming it as Ambedkar Konaseema district.
They wondered when no objections were raised on the naming of districts after NTR, YSR, Annamaya, Satya Sai and Alluri Sitharama Raju, what was the need for objecting to the naming of a district after Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who had strived all his life for the uplift of the Dalits.
Condemning the burning of the houses of Minister Viswaroop and MLA, DHPS president J.V. Prabhakar demanded early identification of the accused involved in the attacks and punishing them severely. Those who were behind the attacks should also be identified and punished, he said. He also sought that measures should be taken to prevent the recurrence of such incidents and continuation of the name as Ambedkar Konaseema district.
Meanwhile, professors, research scholars and students staged a protest at the Ambedkar statue in Andhra University campus condemning the violence in Amalapuram. They raised slogans condemning the violence and held placards against the violence. They demanded immediate arrest of the accused.
