Devineni Uma held while protesting ‘sand mafia’

The NTR District Police arrested former minister Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao while he was staging an agitation at the Ferry of Ibrahimpatnam on Wednesday, against irregular excavating of sand and illegal transporting by the ruling YSRCP. The TDP leaders condemned the arrest of Devineni Uma and made serious allegations against the police and the ruling YSRCP leaders.
YSRCP’s Ibrahimpatnam MPP P Jyotsna staged a protest on the National Highway against the illegal transporting of sand from Guntupalli on Tuesday night. Also, she lodged a complaint at the Ibrahimpatnam Police Station demanding the immediate arrest of sand mafia leaders.
Following the agitation of P Jyotsna, on Wednesday, former minister Devineni Uma Maheswara staged a protest against the illegal sand excavation without having any permits and transporting it to the sand dumps. Also, he showed the videos regarding the excavation of sand at Guntupalli on the river Krishna through video call.
Later, the police tried to call off Uma’s agitation, however, they were in vain. After that, the police arrested Uma and many TDP leaders forcibly and shifted them to the police station.
In this connection, Devineni Uma said that thousands of crore rupees which were collected from the sand mafia, have been sent to the Tadepalli Palace. There is no sand available for the common man and they are spending thousands of rupees to buy sand from the middleman, he alleged.
Further, he said that sand leases expired in May, and as much as Rs.350 crore worth of sand was stored at the sand dumping yards. However, the YSRCP leaders looted the sand dumps and sold them, he said.
For the past six months, illegal sand selling has been happening in the state and the Mining Department has taken no action against the sand mafia, he criticized.