Devineni Uma placed under house arrested in Gollapudi amid protest call at mining office

HYDERABAD: Tension prevailed in Gollapudi of NTR district after the police house-arrested former minister and TDP leader Devineni Uma ahead of his visit to the office of the Director of Mining in Ibrahimpatnam to complain over alleged irregularities in mining as part of the protest call under the name Sand Satyagraha.

The police, who were alerted over the TDP leaders' call deployed forces in large numbers at Devineni Uma's residence in Gollapudi on Tuesday night and placed him under house arrest. The former minister, along with his followers, staged a protest in front of his house raising slogans against the YSRCP government and allegedly looting public money with the sand mafia.

The incident led to an altercation and subsequently tension gripped.

Addressing media, Devineni Uma termed the Sand Satyagraha was like Mahatma Gandhi's Salt Satyagraha and slammed YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for his ”atrocities” in the state. Stating that the people believed that Jagan Mohan Reddy would bring a new sand policy and voted the latter to power, Uma alleged that YSRCP leaders bulldozed the mining department and looted sand for two years by making an agreement with JP company for Rs. 1,528 crores.

He went on to allege that money acquired from Sand Mafia was being paid to YS Jagan Mohan Reddy as a tribute and accused that the latter had amassed Rs. 40,000 crore from the sand corruption, including Rs. 21 crore from Krishna district itself. Devineni Uma said there was no scope for the common man to build houses with YSRCP leaders looting all the sand.

The former minister also questioned why the YSRCP Government was scared when they were peacefully holding their protest and asked why they were denied the opportunity to meet the officials at the mining department.

Devineni Uma leveled accusations against Mylavaram MLA’s PA Narayana of looting sand.

The TDP leader also found fault with the YSRCP Government for its vengeance against Eenadu daily and for arresting the daily’s staff for publishing news on Polavaram. He alleged that the state debt had gone up to Rs 12 lakh crores and the government was not in a position to pay salaries to the employees.