Winds of change have started blowing across the villages in Palnadu in the grip of post poll violence since May this year. A series of violent incidents in the aftermath of election results have threatened to mar development in the region, which has witnessed a relatively peaceful atmosphere after decades of factional violence.
What began as a family feud in the nondescript village of Atmakuru in Durgi mandal in 2016, took a turn for the worse after May 2019, when one group returned to the village after a gap of nearly three years. The two groups in a Dalit family, Peruvala Yeshobu and Charles, have been divided in their allegiances to the Telugu Desam Party and the YSR Congress Party. While the group led by Yeshobu had an upper hand till May 2019, the election results emboldened the other group. Anticipating retaliation, the group led by Yeshobu left the village and came to Guntur, where they were put up in a ‘rehabilitation camp’ by the TDP. TDP president Nara Chandrababu Naidu claimed that there were more than 500 incidents which took place across the State after elections.
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He then gave a call on September 10 for ‘Chalo Atmakuru’ but the police foiled the move by placing him under preventive detention at his home in Undavalli.
Since then, the police have initiated several confidence-building measures which have started yielding results. Superintendent of Police (rural) R. Jayalakshmi led from the front, by holding peace talks with both the groups. Police officers in the ranks of Deputy Superintendent of Police, Station House Officer, Sub-Inspector have been sleeping in the villages.
“The police have also begun adopting villages, in a way, they have the responsibility of meeting the needs of community. Many villages are facing an acute water shortage so we set up mineral water plants at SC Colony in Atmakuru, borewells and repaired overhead water tanks at Jangamaheswarapadu village, cleared the bushes and started electrification works,’’ said Ms. Jayalakshmi.
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What followed was an affirmative action by the police in many villages, showing the other side of the department. Deputy Superintendent of Police, Gurazala, Srihari Rao, said that beginning with counselling sessions to unemployed youth, the police began to reach out to the people.
Books and school bags were distributed, village meetings were held in the evenings and elders have been asked to be as peacemakers, defunct borewells have been dug up and even lighting facilities were set up in villages.