'Operation Kolleru' begins

Vijayawada, Apr 20: The Krishna District administration in Andhra Pradesh will start 'Operation Kolleru' from today as per the Supreme Court directions,.

Talking to UNI here, official sources said out of the encroachments spread in 20,000 acres in the district, the administration, during the earlier phases of operation, blasted fish tanks by using explosives spread over 6,000 acres. Encroachments in the remaining 14,000 acres will be removed in the current phase of the operation, they added.

The officials had earlier stopped the demolition of tanks, following the Supreme Court orders allowing fish farmers to place their argument. The Empowered Committee of the apex court heard the petitions of the farmers in Hyderabad last month.

Though it was initially planned to use explosives and blast fish tanks, the officials had finally decided on using machines to destroy the tanks and positioned over 20 machines in two mandals of Kaikaluru and Mandavalli in the district.

The directions came from the apex court to dismantle the tanks.

The lake was occupied by some private people who converted it into fish tanks.

Krishna District Collector Navin Mittal said there was no need to deploy additional police forces from neighbouring districts as the forces available in the district were sufficient.

UNI