TOI reported that tension prevailed at the Anrak alumina refinery plant area here on Wednesday after police authorities arrested a group of agitating farmers for trying to prevent lorries carrying raw materials from entering the plant.
The police booked former Praja Rajyam party (PRP) leader Ruttala Errapatrudu, who was leading the protesting farmers, and the protestors on charges of attempt to murder, based on a complaint filed by the owners of the lorries. According to the police, the farmers' leader threatened the drivers and the cleaners with deadly weapons.
A large posse of cops was deployed in the five villages of G Venkatapuram, Rachapalli, Koduru, Kottapalem and Dharmavaram surrounding the plant from Tuesday onwards after a warning was issued by Errapatrudu.
Alleging irregularities in the distribution of compensation to beneficiaries, Errapatrudu has been leading protests, including hunger strikes, over the past two years demanding that the government and the alumina plant management pay proper compensation to displaced farmers and minimum wages as per the labour laws. Errapatrudu also alleged that the Anrak management and district administration accepted the demands of others, who staged a relay of hunger strikes for three days recently, but failed to consider the genuine demands of the workers and the displaced.
He has been demanding that the government give full compensation to displaced persons, give a 96 sq yards site for resettlement and also include them in the Pashukranthi scheme, which he claimed had not been done, despite written assurances from the district administration to farmers after his hunger strike.
It may be recalled that a couple of years ago two agitating farmers had died undergoing treatment at a local hospital after the cops swooped down on a in pre-dawn operation at Errapatrudu's protest camp in Makavarapalem.
