TRS ZP vice-chief assaults lady FRO

Asifabad/Hyderabad: The attack on Kagaznagar Forest Range Officer Anitha Chole by villagers of Sarsala in Kumram Bheem Asifabad district, allegedly led by TRS Sirpur MLA's brother, has come as an embarrassment for the ruling party.

According to Forest Divisional Officer M Raja Ramana Reddy, the incident took place when a team of 40 forest personnel and 30 policemen went with a tractor to plough a 20-hectare degraded forest to take up afforestation works and plant trees.

Reddy said the land in the Kadamba Reserve Forest block is part of compensatory afforestation for the Kaleshwaram project.

He said that as soon as the officials started cleaning shrubs and bushes, the villagers armed with sticks pounced on them and asked them to leave the place.

When the officials told them that they were only carrying out government orders, an argument ensued, and the villagers attacked them.

They were allegedly led by Asifabad Zilla Parishad vice-chairperson Koneru Krishna, who happens to be the brother of TRS Sirpur MLA Koneru Kannappa.

Anitha climbed on to a tractor and tried to ask the villagers not to resort to violence when they attacked her with sticks. In the process her right hand got fractured.

As videos of the attack went viral and forest officials complained to senior officers, the government took a serious note of the incident.

The police arrested Krishna and the TRS leadership asked him to resign from the post of Zilla Parishad vice chairperson.

Speaking to The Hans India, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest P K Jha termed the attack as serious issue and said the land where the forest officials have gone to plant saplings belonged to the Forest department.

The Indian Forest Services (IFS) Officers Association condemned the attack and demanded the government to initiate action against the perpetrators of the attack.