Smuggling, threat to democracy: AP CM
Naidu parries red sanders encounter
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-09-21 06:06 GMT
Chennai: The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday declined to comment on the alleged encounter killing of Tamil Nadu woodcutters in Seshachalam by the Andhra police a few months back, but asserted that smuggling of red sanders is a threat to democracy.
Naidu, during a brief stopover at the airport here en route to Singapore to plan his new capital, said smuggling of costly red sanders to other states and countries from the Sesachalam hill ranges was a “threat to democracy.”
“The smuggling is going on even now. It is costly wood. As it not only smuggled to other states but also to various countries from Seshachalam hill ranges, it is a threat to democracy,” the Chief Minister said in an informal chat with reporters. He, however, declined to comment on the “encounter” as it was sub-judice.
The red sander is in the endangered list and is grown mainly in Seshachalam hill ranges and parts of Nellore district. It may be recalled that on April 7, 20 woodcutters from Tamil Nadu were allegedly shot dead in a police operation against red sanders smuggling in Seshachalam hill ranges.