Capital row: Cops prevent women's march to shrine

Citing prohibitory orders, police on Friday prevented women from taking out a 'pada yatra' from Uddandarayunipalem village to a temple in Vijayawada to offer special prayers for retaining Amaravati as the capital.

Police cited orders under Section 144 Cr PC (banning assembly of more than four people) and Section 30 of Indian Police Act in the area for preventing the foot march.

The women cooked sweet 'pongal' (sweet rice) as an offering to Goddess Kanaka Durga, the presiding deity of Vijayawada, seeking her blessings for Amaravati.

The BJP condemned the police action on the women and said it amounted to interference with religious beliefs.

"This is nothing but the government's attack on Hindu faith. The police personnel who manhandled women should be suspended from service forthwith," BJP spokesman K Saikrishna demanded.

Guntur Rural Superintendent of Police Ch Vijaya Rao said in a statement that they had not manhandled any women.

Some TDP leaders and women were taken into custody as they sought to take out rallies in parts of Andhra Pradesh demanding that Amaravati be retained as the State's capital.

Reports from Vijayawada, Guntur and the Amaravati region said police allegedly manhandled women and forcibly dumped them into vans, to be driven away to police stations.

The National Commission for Women, responding to tweets by local farmers, said it was taking on its own cognizance of the incidents.

Commission Chairperson Rekha Sharma tweeted that a fact-finding team of NCW was being sent to Amaravati to inquire into the incidents.

Police took TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh and state unit president K Kala Venkata Rao into custody at the Kaja toll plaza on NH-16 when they were proceeding towards Amaravati from Ongole to console the family of a farmer who died of heart attack.

TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu took to the streets again on Friday, in Rajamahendravaram, and sought alms from traders and people for the movement in support of Amaravati as the state capital.

Police sealed a private function hall in Vijayawada that was being used as the office of the 'Amaravati Parirakshana Samiti.'