Sena tries to storm Salura

In a tit-for-tat response to the Telugu Desam stir on the Babli project, Shiv Sena activists along with pro-Babli agitators from Maharashtra tried to storm the Salura minor lift irrigation project at Salura village in the sugar-rich Bodhan mandal of Nizamabad district, on Thursday, threatening to demolish it.

However, in a swift move, the Maharashtra police blocked and took into custody the 100-odd slogan shouting activists at the entrance of a bridge leading to AP territory, about 10 km away from Bodhan and 45 km from Nizamabad. On their part, the AP police in Nizamabad put up barricades at the border villages to prevent the Sena activists from crossing over.

Tension prevailed on the AP-Maharashtra border with 2,000 villagers from Salura, some armed with sticks, reaching the bridge to take on the Sena men. With angry slogans, restive crowds and scores of cops, the area looked like a battlefield. The dispute between Maharashtra and AP over the location of the Rs 3.82-crore project across Man-jeera River had been settled earlier after a study by the Survey of India showed that it was within AP, but the Sena has made it clear it is going to resurrect the row.

Reacting to the provocative march by the Sena, the AP government asserted that the Salura project was very much within the state’s territory while the ruling Congress blamed the TD chief, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, for creating unnecessary animosity through his stir. “The padayatra to Salura is a reaction to Mr Naidu’s attempts to visit Babli project,” said the minor irrigation minister Ms Sunitha Lakshmareddy.