Cops fire at Sompeta protestors, four dead

Four persons were killed and six persons sustained injuries when police opened fire on villagers including women and children protesting against a thermal power project being set up by Nagarjuna Construction Company in the wetlands of Sompeta mandal on Wednesday.

About 40 villagers, 30 police personnel and eight mediapersons also sustained injuries in the stone pelting and lathi charge.

“It was a warlike situation with 3,000 police personnel clashing with more than 5,000 people from six villages,” said an eyewitness.

Local residents, including farmers and fishermen, have been opposing the project as it is coming up on 1,890 acre wetland popularly known as `Beela’ lands and is close to the seacoast. They fear the project will wreck the ecology of the area and destroy their livelihood.

Angry protesters barged into the NCC project site, destroyed the furniture and set it on fire. They also gutted 15 two wheelers and a police vehicle. More than 70 people have been taken into custody and more police personnel were deployed to bring the situation under control.

The dead were identified as B. Venugopala Rao, 42, of Isukapalem, G. Krishna Murthy, 50, of Lakkavaram, P. Jagga Rao, 35, of Palasapuram and G. Mohan Rao.

Venugopala Rao and Krishna Murthy died near the project site and Jagga Rao died in the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Srikakulam town.

People of the area had been restive for the last several days with the NCC management hiring hundreds of men to fence their lands with barbed wire and also deploying scores of private security guards.

Further, the police and revenue officials irked the populace by distributing pamphlets in Sompeta and surrounding villages warning of action on those who protest during the foundation stone laying ceremony of the 2,640 mw thermal power plant.

Trouble erupted after a group of angry villagers stormed the project site and tried to disrupt the foundation stone laying ceremony on Wednesday. Police baton charged them and then took them into custody.

As soon as the news of their arrest spread in the area, thousands of people including a large number of women and children marched towards the project site. Police personnel used tear gas on the crowd, and then swooped down on them, chasing them to the paddy fields with lathis. With the situation spiralling out of control, cops opened fire.

Undaunted, fishermen, farmers and a large number of women rushed to the project site, pelted stones and set fire to vehicles. Police and private security guards hired by the NCC chased the protesters and beat them up. Along with local people, environmentalists and NGOs had also appealed the State government to abandon the project as it was coming up in ecologically sensitive area.