Tension mounts in Amaravati farmers' 'Maha Padayatra'

A farmer's hand was fractured as police unleashed lathi charge during Maha Padayatra in Chadhawada area. The Maha Padayatra entered the eleventh day on Thursday.

Amravati: The eleventh day of farmers' Maha Padayatra on Thursday in Andhra Pradesh has been chaotic as police imposed restrictions. As tension mounted in the Chadhawada area in Prakasam district, police unleashed lathi charge and a farmer's hand got fractured. Imposing stringent restrictions, roads were cordoned off and checkposts were set up by police to prevent people from joining the padayatra.

The padayatra started from Naguluppalapadu to Muktinuthalapadu in Prakasam district on Thursday. The Maha Padayatra kickstarted by Amaravati farmers to put forth the demand of maintaining Amaravati as the sole capital of Andhra Pradesh. Under aegis of the Amaravati Joint Action Committee (JAC), it has been planned that agitators will walk 10 to 15 kilometres daily.

The march has been planned across 70 villages in Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore and Chittoor districts and would culminate on December 17 in Tirupati. A large number of farmers, women, and leaders of various political parties have been taking part in the yatra.

Leaders of all political parties except the YSRCP, are supporting the padayatra. Already, TDP, Congress, CPI, CPM and Farmers' Unions expressed their solidarity with farmers. It may be recalled that after coming to power in 2019, the YSRCP government had decided to shift administrative capital to Visakhapatnam and judicial capital to Kurnool while retaining Amaravati as only the legislative capital.