Srikakulam, July 15: Four villagers died and over 60 were injured when police opened fire at fishermen and farmers protesting the construction of a coalbased power plant by Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC) at Beela, a 4,000acre wetland in Sompeta mandal in Srikakulam district on Wednesday.
The fishermen had massed from 24 villages, demanding that construction work on the project be abandoned. Policemen chased and thrashed them, which triggered a retaliation. When the situation threatened to go out of control, the cops opened fire.
Later in the day, they struck terror again, raiding houses and roughing up villagers. Even a heavy downpour in the evening did not deter them as they went about rounding up protestors with the help of video clips. They attacked Moura Hospital in Sompeta run by D Rama Rao, an environmentalist. They beat him up as well as villagers being treated at the hospital. All this, despite instructions from Hyderabad to retreat.
The villagers who died in the firing were G Venugopala Rao (35), G Krishna Murthy (42), G Mohan Rao (38), and D Joga Rao (32).
There has been stiff opposition to the NCC power plant as fishermen, who depend on the marshy wetland called Beelas, fear that industrial effluents would kill marine life. The company proposes to set up a 1320 mw thermal power plant with an investment of Rs 12,000 crore on about 970 acres in the area. At a public hearing in August last, locals made their opposition crystal clear.
Trouble broke out this morning when villagers prevented workers brought from Orissa by NCC from clearing bushes at the site. As the hired hands began levelling the ground, the locals asked them to leave. An argument ensued and police brought in from Vizag and Vizianagaram intervened. The arguments soon escalated to clashes. Police caned the protesters, including women. The hired labourers too joined in and beat up the villagers. Incensed, the villagers thrashed the policemen with sticks and rained stones on them. The villagers also set fire to tents, a generator and a few vehicles. They also torched a vehicle of Kasibugga DSP after injuring him.
Beaten black and blue, the policemen fired 10 rounds. Three villagers died on the way to hospital while another breathed his last while undergoing treatment.
The villagers, however, quickly, regrouped after reaching Sompet, about 4 km from the Beela, and stormed a hospital where injured policemen were undergoing treatment. They went on the rampage and beat up a few journalists too. The scribes had been thrashed earlier at Beela. They then raided the NCC office in the village and set fire to it after destroying furniture and computers. Police rushed to the NCC office and opened fire once again this time into the air. Some 600 more policemen have been mobilised to be sent to the site on the morrow.
—Agencies