Youth fighting for eco cause tied to pole, beaten up

Rajahmundry: A youth fighting against illegally-run aqua ponds in Konaseema district was tied to a pole and beaten by aqua farmers. The incident took place on December 9, but came to light on Wednesday.The youth, identified as Chikkam Veera Durga Prasad of Sannavilli village under Uppaguptham mandal, has been waging a legal battle against these ponds, maintaining they were defying environmental norms. The court has issued orders to halt their functioning, but aqua farmers are trying to operate the ponds ignoring them.According to Durga Prasad, the farmers had tried to dig aqua ponds near the panchayat office in 2013 and some villagers fell ill and were hospitalised. He along with some other villagers had filed petitions at public grievance hearings in 2018 and 2023, following which a resolution was passed in the panchayat in favour of the petitioners. Later, a PIL was filed in the Andhra Pradesh high court, which issued orders in favour of the villagers on March 20, 2024. The court had ordered closure of the aqua ponds. However, since the past five days, the farmers began filling up water in the ponds. According to Durga Prasad, he informed the fisheries development officer, who told him to take photographs and keep them with him. On December 9, he went to the ponds and attempted to take photographs of the ponds.Noticing Prasad, four farmers — Ganisetty Venkata Raju, Ganisetty Srinivasa Rao, Chikkam Gandhi and Ganisetty Satyannarayana Murthy — stopped him and snatched his mobile phone.Later, Raju and Satyannarayana tied Prasad to a pole and beat him with sticks. After knowing about the incident, Prasad's relatives rushed to rescue him, but the accused did not leave him. Later, locals intervened and rescued Prasad. The police have booked a case against the four accused persons under Sections 127(2), 118(1), 115(2), 324(3) read with 3(5) of Uppalaguptham PS (342, 324, 323 new section read with 34 IPC).Meanwhile, the fisheries department refuted Prasad's claim that he was told to take the photographs of the aqua pond. Talking to TOI, Konaseema fisheries joint director N Srinivasa Rao said the FDO did not tell Durga Prasad to take photos as they cannot identify aqua ponds with help of photographs.