Anantapur: Tension prevailed on Sunday at Puttaparti after a group of Telugu Desam cadres reportedly attacked assistant engineer V. Jamuna Bai of the minor irrigation department in connection with allotment of maintenance work to their rival group. Puttaparti is the constituency headquarters of IT minister Palle Raghunath Reddy.
The engineer lodged a complaint at the Puttaparti police station against the TD cadres for misbehaviour and destroying a survey instrument.
Sources said about Rs 3.30 lakh was sanctioned towards maintenance of supply channel of Yenumulapalli tank in Puttaparti municipality limits in the district.
The nomination work was allotted to a group of TD cadres - Sudhakar, Gangadharam and others in the village. The irrigation official visited the Yenumalapalli tank to conduct survey on the proposed work.
Another group of TD led by Y. Jayarama Naidu, Sreenivasulu, Murali and others prevented the survey by the engineer for the proposed work.
They dragged the survey kit worth of Rs 20,000 and threw it out while the woman engineer was conducting the survey and halted it. The engineer had lodged a complaint against the TD leaders in the village for their unruly behaviour towards a lady officer on duty.
The ST Employees Association leaders K. Gopal Naik and B. Govinda Naik demanded stringent action against the TD leaders.
Meanwhile, the TD leaders denied the attack on the engineer and lodged a counter case against their opposite group in the village. The Puttaparti police said they were investigating the cases.
