Palamaner police seize Lokesh's campaign vehicle

Palamaner(Chittoor district): Giving a jolt to the ongoing Yuva Galam padayatra by TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh, Palamaner police seized his campaign vehicle on Thursday saying that permission was not given to use it. In a notice issued by the local DSP, it was stated that though permission was not accorded to conduct public meeting on national and state highways and on municipal and panchayat roads, Lokesh used a mike standing atop the Eicher vehicle on Thursday afternoon.

Following this, TDP activists in large numbers staged protests on the road against the police action and asked why the police resorted to the seizure of the vehicle. At this time, Lokesh said that after Jagan Mohan Reddy became the Chief Minister at least 19 cases, including an SC,ST Atrocities case and an attempt to murder case were filed against him while not even a single case was registered against him earlier. The State government even issued the GO No-1 to prevent him from taking up padayatra, he remarked. Later, the police released the vehicle.

Meanwhile, Lokesh has completed the padayatra for seven days during which he covered 88.5 km while on Thursday alone he walked 16.2 kms in through completing two constituencies Palamaner and Kuppam so far and entered the limits of Puthalapattu constituency. In Palamaner, the padayatra received overwhelming response. At Gandhi Nagar cross, BJP leaders met Lokesh and expressed solidarity.

The representatives of the MSME met Lokesh and complained that the YSRCP government revised land cost and charging Rs 383 more per square meter from them than the earlier TDP government. Responding to them, Lokesh said that the MSME system totally collapsed due to the imposition of 'J' tax and the youth were migrating to other states in search of employment as there are no jobs in the State.