AP: Villagers spice up protest with masala

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ONGOLE: Protests to save livelihoods and environment turn literally more spicier when they sprout within the state as was displayed in the village of Marlapadu in Tanguturu mandal of Prakasam district Saturday. Villagers protesting against a proposed iron ore plant near Konijedu-Marlapadu villages, not only raised slogans against officials who attempted to conduct a public hearing but bombarded their cars with packets of chilli powder.Locals not only boycotted the public hearing, the second such conducted by the AP Pollution Control Board but also manhandled officials including AP Mineral Development Corporation executive director H D Nagaraja and Ambarish, manager of the private mining company GIMPEX. They also gheraoed district collector Kanthilal Dhande.The ire of the villagers came to the fore when the state government entered into an MoU with GIMPEX and floated Andhra Pradesh Iron Ore Company Limited to exploit Magnetite iron ore deposits with 29.9 per cent iron content from the Konijedu-Maralpadu block. But residents of the two villages oppose the proposal tooth and nail and made it clear that they would not allow neither government nor private  company to set up a mining plant. The had boycotted a public hearing conducted in February.According to the sources, the officials from PCB and APMDC along with the district collector and revenue officials arranged for another public hearing on Saturday at a school in Marlapadu. A nearly 5,000-strong crowd, a major chunk of which consisted of women, from Marlapadu, Konijedu, Yerrajerla, Sarvaredypalem and Kanduluru villages gathered but did not attend the public hearing. They protested against the plant saying it would be detrimental to the quality of their life, spewing dust and pollutants into the air and water in their locality.