Hyderabad, January 27: As many as 20 persons were injured, eight of them grieveously, when police resorted to firing to quell the rioting workers of the Regency Ceramics Industry in Yanam adjoining Kakinada of East Godavari district on Friday morning.
While a union leader of the workers, Mr. Muralimohan, who sustained injuries in a lathi-charge on Thursday, succumbed to the injuries this morning, the Vice-Chairman of the company, Mr. Chandrashekar, grievously injured after he was attacked by the workers this morning also succumbed.
Trouble broke out this morning in this small town, situated in the union territory on Pondicherry adjoining Andhra Pradesh ,when the agitating Regency workers raided and ransacked the police station damaging and destroying furniture and other equipment.
The workers were enraged on hearing the news about the death of their union leader Muralimohan, who was injured in a lathi-charge on Thursday. Holding the police responsible for the death of their leader, the workers already seething with anger went berserk attacking the police station and its personnel.
As if this was not enough, the workers also attacked shops, business establishments and even educational institutions. As many as eight buses including four belonging to the Regency school were set ablaze while 20 other vehicles were damaged in the vandalism.
The workers also attacked the Vice-Chairman of the industry Mr. Chandrasekhar who sustained serious injuries and had to be rushed to a hospital in nearby Kakinada. In a bid to quell the rampaging workers, the police resorted to lathi- charge but when it did not have the desired effect of controlling the violence the police opened fire. Twenty workers sustained injuries and of them the condition of eight are stated to be serious.
The district administration has requested for additional police forces including from Andhra Pradesh as the situation continued to remain tense.
The Regency workers have been agitating for the past one month for various demands including payment of wages which have been delayed for the past three months. The management allegedly sacked some workers for raising their voice against its anti-labour policy. The workers have even begun a relay hunger strike for the past fortnight after they had stepped up their agitation by forming a union with Mr. Harsh Kumar Amalapuram MP as honorary President.
The workers were stated to have taken out a rally under the leadership of their union leader Mr. Muralimohan on Thursday which resulted in a clash between the police and the workers leading to a lathi-charge. Mr. Muralimohan who sustained injuries was admitted to the hospital where he died this morning.
The news of the death of the union leader erupted into violence this morning leading to police opening firing on the rioting workers. Since the union leader is a dalit, the police are apprehensive of violence spreading to the nearby Amalapuram which is already in the grip of violence and tension following the desecration of the statues of B.R. Ambedkar.
It is also pertinent to note here that the Mr. Harsh Kumar, a dalit himself, is the honorary President of the Regency Ceramics workers and represents Amalapuram Lok Sabha constituency. Thus the police and district administration are taking all needed precautions to ensure that the Yanam incident should not fuel further trouble in Amalapuram.
—Agencies