Police stop BRS leaders from serving food to Velugumatla displaced families in Khammam

Tension prevailed in Khammam after police stopped volunteers from serving food to families displaced from Velugumatla Bhoodan lands. The incident triggered protests by BRS leaders and residents, while the government identified over 300 families for house-site distribution

Khammam: The State government, which abandoned hundreds of residents of Velugumatla Bhoodan lands after rendering them homeless, is not even allowing charitable organisations to serve food to them.

The Puvvada Foundation was serving food to the displaced families for the last few days. When the foundation members and BRS cadre took food to the TTDC function hall in the city to serve lunch to the families on Tuesday, the police prevented them from serving food to the families.

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As the police stopped the food vehicle, the foundation members asked whether the families would be provided meals by the Revenue Department and why others were not allowed to do so. Angered over the police behaviour, several women questioned the personnel why they had not provided food for the families for the past many days.

Some women even fell at the feet of the policemen, begging them to allow the families to have lunch as they were hungry. BRS leaders, on seeing the plight of the families, served food on the road in front of the function hall.

It was only after the media reached the spot that the police let the BRS leaders and the foundation members serve food to the families inside the function hall, where the displaced have been staying for the past one week. A video related to the incident went viral on social media.

Meanwhile, in a key development on rehabilitation of Velugumatla displaced families, the government has reportedly identified over 300 of the 700 displaced families as eligible for distributing house sites. Revenue officials distributed tokens to the selected families at the Khammam Collectorate on Tuesday.

It was said that the district ministers would distribute pattas on Wednesday to the families. But it was not clear where the house sites would be given with officials not releasing the list of eligible families either.