The three-day ‘Sathyagraha Deeksha’ protest launched by former Agriculture Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Polit Bureau member Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy at Thatiparthi village in Podalakur mandal of SPSR Nellore district was foiled by the police on Tuesday morning.
Around seventy transgender persons arrived in a hired bus at the protest camp on Monday night. Mr. Reddy accused the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) leaders of trying to ‘misuse’ transgender people as well as the police machinery, in an apparent bid to curb the protest against illegal mining. However, on finding Mr. Reddy in the Satyagraha camp, the transgender people blessed him and returned, he claimed.
Shortly after, policemen reached the protest site and demanded that the 200 TDP workers clear the spot. “Believing in their words, I sent away all the supporters barring five persons. At around 2.25 am, the cops came again and violently removed me from the Satyagraha camp and arrested me,” Mr. Reddy told The Hindu.
Protest against illegal mining
The TDP leader launched his protest in front of the mines, against the alleged illegal silica and quartz mining led by YSRCP leaders. He had even produced the survey numbers in Saidapuram, Rapur, Gudur and Podakalur mandals of the erstwhile Nellore district (now partly moved into Tirupati district), where the mining was rampant.
“Though I provided photographic evidence of dangerous explosives and gelatin sticks lying unattended in the mines, there was no response from the Chief Secretary or the Director General of Police, leave alone the local Collector or the SP,” Mr. Reddy said.
Expressing fear that the mined material could be smuggled out from the spot after foiling his protest camp, he pegged the collective worth of the quartz and silica mines scam at ₹8,000 crore. “This is India’s next major scam involving natural resources, after iron ore,” he told the media.
