Once Again, HC Stands By Amaravati Farmers

The capital-region farmers received a shot in the arm with the High Court giving nod to their Mahapadyatra planned on September 12 to mark the 1,000th day of their stir demanding that Amaravati be recognized as the lone capital of Andhra Pradesh.

The walkathon ‘Amaravati to Arasavalli’ would begin at Lord Venkateswara temple constructed by the TTD in Venkatapalem near the High Court and cover 900 km in 60 days. It would conclude at the Sun temple in Arasavilli where a public meeting is also being planned for which the High Court asked the Amaravati Parirakshana Samiti to immediately apply seeking permission.

It was only last night that the DGP had issued a letter denying permission to the Mahapadayatra and within the next few hours, the High Court gave green signal to the farmers to go ahead with their programme which brought cheers to the ryots. Samiti leaders said that as many as 600 farmers would take part in the walkathon Of them, 250 are women farmers and they made it clear that they would not step back from going ahead with the programme even if cases were registered against them.

Last month, the farmers submitted an application to the police chief seeking permission for the Mahapadayatra but there had been no response to it. Then the farmers moved the court and after hearing to both the parties, the HC issued directives to the police to issue ID cards to the participants and also impose only reasonable restrictions on the padayatra.

During the Nyayasthanam to Devasthanam padayatra taken out a few months ago, the farmers walked from the Andhra Pradesh High Court to Lord Balaji temple in Tirumala when over 71 cases were registered against the farmers. Senior counsel Unnam Muralidhar and VV Lakshminarayana, who presented arguments in favour of the farmers, said that all these cases were petty and just foisted against their clients out of vengeance.