People's Democracy

ANDHRA PRADESH

Police Resort To Firing On Agitating Fishermen

One Worker Killed, Several Injured

Police brutality at its worst

M Venugopala Rao

THE police resorted to brutal repression on fishermen agitating for protection of their livelihood which is being endangered as a result of the construction of Gangavaram port in Visakhapatnam district, which resulted in the killing of one worker and injuring several people, including women and old people. The police resorted to lathicharge, used tear gas shells and fired at the agitating fishermen who were demanding the government not to displace them from the sea and pay them fair compensation and assure employment.

On March 25, 2006, when officers tried to forcibly remove boats of fishermen from Gangavaram, the fishermen obstructed them. In the resultant conflict two officers and three fishermen were seriously injured and another 20 people sustained minor injuries. In this background, an all-party delegation met the district collector A K Singhal the next day and requested him to solve the problem peacefully and take steps to do justice to the affected fishermen.  Later, an all-party meeting worked out future course of agitation and decided to stop the works of Gangavaram port on March 27. 

Large contingents of police were deployed from the early morning of March 27 at Gangavaram and the DCP P Ravinder ordered the police to remove the tent at Gangavaram junction where leaders of the united forum of fishermen have been conducting relay hunger strike. When the message reached them, the villagers started coming to the junction with a view to stopping the police from removing the tent.  The police resorted to indiscriminate lathicharge on the villagers and beat up the local CPI(M) leader M Rambabu severely with lathis and took him to Gajuvaka. The villagers pelted stones at the police. Continuing their lathicharge, the police fired tear gas shells one of which hit a local worker Chodipalli Nookaraju in his face as a result of which he died by the time the police shifted him to hospital. The police fired into the air and entered into the houses of fishermen and indiscriminately beat up members of their families, including children, women and old people.  K Nookaratnam, who gave birth to a baby ten days back, was one of the victims of the police brutality and at the time of writing this report her condition was serious. Even women who were cooking in their homes and who were taking water from street pumps were not spared by the police.  The police dragged the women by their hair and beat them up with their lathis.  According to the police, 23 policemen, including  an armed ACP and one inspector, nearly 30 villagers were injured, some of them seriously.  The police tried to arrest the all-party leaders from the Sunday midnight onwards and subjected CPI(M) Visakhapatnam district secretary Ch Narsinga Rao to house arrest and arrested him the next day morning and released him in the evening along with other arrested leaders.

ALL ROUND CONDEMNATION

The police brutality and the flippant approach of the state government received all-round condemnation by the opposition parties in the legislative assembly and outside. The House was adjourned twice amidst pandemonium with the speaker K R Suresh Reddy disallowing the adjournment motions on Gangavaram firing for which notices were given by the members of the CPI(M) and CPI,  who insisted on taking up the same for discussion immediately. The CPI(M) members rushed to the podium of the speaker and argued with him. Later, the chief minister, the minister for home, K Jana Reddy and minister from Visakhapatnam district K Ramakrishna clarified the stand of the government. The home minister explained that there was no other option for the police except resorting to firing. Ramakrishna explained that a better relief package was prepared for the people affected under the Gangavaram port and as the election code of conduct was in force in Visakhapatnam, the package could not be announced. The chief minister said he would not find fault with the police even if they had fled away, but firing was not desirable. He announced an enquiry into the incident by an IAS officer. The chief minister did not concede the demand of the opposition to order a judicial enquiry, stop construction of Gangavaram port till a decision is taken in the all-party meeting announced by the government to take place on March 29 and to enhance compensation to the family of the deceased. Nomula Narsimhaiah, leader of the CPI(M) legislature party, said the government should bow down its head in shame for the police firing in Gangavaram and reminded that following the police firing on the people agitating against power tariff hike at Basheerbagh in Hyderabad on August 28, 2000 during the TDP regime, the latter was defeated at the subsequent hustings and warned that the same fate would befall on the Congress also.  Asking whether the government is working for the general public or for a few private people, Narsimhaiah reminded that Dr Rajasekhara Reddy, while he was in the opposition, had demanded stoppage of construction of Gangavaram port.       

The fishermen who are getting displaced as a result of construction of port at Gangavaram by a private company have been agitating and continuing their relay hunger strike for more than 48 days. With the government failing to solve their problems, despite repeated appeals by all-party leaders to the government at various levels and the assurance given the district collector A K Singhal on February 26, 2006 to examine their demands and do justice in response to the representation made by the all-party delegation, no action was taken.  Later, when the Visakhapatnam district committee secretary of the CPI(M), Ch Narsigna Rao, and leaders of all-party delegation met the chief minister and explained the problems of the fishermen affected under the Gangavaram port, he entrusted the task of solving their problems to the district minister, K Ramakrishna. But no concrete action has been taken by the government to solve the problems of the fishermen.

CPI(M) DEMAND

The state committee of the CPI(M) demanded the government to order judicial enquiry into the police firing at Gangavaram and suspend the civil and police officers who were responsible for the incident immediately.  B V Raghavulu, state secretary of the CPI(M), in a statement demanded the government to stop all kinds of works of the port till the problems are solved. He demanded payment of ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the family of Nookaraju and free medicare to the injured. Raghavulu demanded release of all those who were arrested.

Protesting against the police firing on the fishermen and women, a bandh was observed successfully and peacefully in Visakhapatnam district on March 28.  Effigies of the chief minister and the state government were burnt, protest rallies  taken out and raasta rokos held  at various places in the district and the state, including Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Tirupati, Rajahmundry, Kakinada, Yeleswaram etc.