Tension prevailed during a major eviction exercise undertaken by the police and revenue personnel at Obulunaiduvaripalem, near here, on Saturday.
Even as the revenue personnel were engaged in dismantling huts, seven persons consumed pesticide. All the seven were rushed to the Government General Hospital, where their condition is stated to be stable.
Over 300 revenue and police personnel began the operation to evict over 500 families living on a land measuring over 30 acres besides the dumping yard at Obulunaiduvaripalem in the early hours of Saturday. The land was earlier allotted to Apache shoe factory during the tenure of the Congress government in the year 2010, but the company had not taken possession of it.
Meanwhile, hundreds of families started building thatched houses and some of them reportedly supported by the Communits Party of India (Marxist) began a movement to get possession of the lands. The district administration now wants to allot the lands to APTIDCO to take up housing projects for the poor.
The operation to evict those who have been living on encroached lands which began in the late hours of Friday continued till 11 a.m.
Telugu Desam Party MLC Dokka Manikya Vara Prasad visited the site and expressed his solidarity with the agitating locals.
