The Andhra Pradesh high court on Friday gave conditional permission to the 60-day long “Maha Padayatra” by the farmers of Amaravati to Srikakulam from September 12, hours after the state police refused to grant approval to the same.
Acting on a petition filed by the Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi general secretary Gadde Tirupati Rao, the state high court directed that the police give them permission subject to certain conditions.
The high court said not more than 600 farmers should take part in the padayatra and they should submit their Identity Cards to the police before embarking on the padayatra. They would follow the restrictions imposed by the police, the court said.
The high court also asked the organisers to apply for permission for the public meeting to be held at the end of the padayatra. The court asked the police to examine the application and give the permission.
The Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi has proposed to conduct the “Amaravati to Arasavilli” padayatra starting from September 12 to November 11.
Through various villages covering 12 districts -- Guntur, Bapatla, Krishna, Eluru, West Godavari, East Godavari, Ambedkar Konaseema, Kakinanda, Anakapalli, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam.
In their representation to the police, the Samithi leaders proposed that around 200 people would take part in the padayatra and if number increases, then the same will be divided into groups of not more than 200 people in a single group. The farmers will also carry the Idol of Lord Venkateswara Swamy on a vehicle.
After midnight on Thursday, Director General of Police K V Rajendranath Reddy said the permission could not be granted due to the previous experience of the farmers taking out rally from Amaravati to Tirumala from November 1, 2021 to December 17, 2021.
The DGP pointed out that the organisers had violated several conditions imposed up by the police during the last padayatra.
He pointed out that a total of 71 criminal cases were registered and in addition to it, they committed 51 violations of the permission order issued by police.
“In two criminal cases they pleaded guilty and convicted. Two criminal cases are pending trial and the remaining are in various stages of investigation etc. The nature of offences committed by the participants are ranging from assault on public servants causing injuries to the public servants while discharging their official duty. wrongful restraint etc,” the DGP said.
Reddy said the issue of trifurcation of capitals of the state is having different competing claims in different areas and the entourage of the proposed programme is passing through Visakhapatnam district which was proposed as executive capital.
“The inputs suggest there is likelihood of breach of peace and disturbance of tranquillity in the areas through which the Padayatra proposed to be undertaken due to the political and emotive nature of the issue,” he said.
