N Chandrababu Naidu skips visit to adopted village

Visakhapatnam: Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu will skip another visit to his adopted village Pedalabudu near Araku Valley in Vizag Agency on Wednesday. Mr Naidu was supposes to visit Pedalabudu after addressing a public meeting in Araku Valley marking the International Day of World’s Indigenous People (World Tribals Day) on August 9. There were no specific reason given for cancelling the tour to Pedalabudu though security reasons are being mentioned by sources for limiting the chief minister’s tour for the public meeting in Araku Valley.

Top police officials from Vizag rural have been on their toes after improvised explosive devices exploded in a bus of APSRTC near Damuku area under Ananthagiri (Vizag-Araku road route) mandal in Vizag Agency recently. Police suspect role of Maoists in the incident saying that someone was transporting the IED to supply it to red-rebels when it accidentally exploded.

The entire incident indicated that the Maoists are lurking around Vizag Agency and might resort to some activity that would draw the attention of the people. Sources said that the intelligence wing has advised police and district administration to shorten the trip to the public meeting in Arakuvalley as it would be difficult to monitor the security in between Araku Valley and Pedalabudu region during the rainy season.

On June 7 this year, Mr Naidu’s trip to the Araku Valley was cancelled due to inclement weather. He addressed tribals of Pedalabudu and other areas through video conference. On Tuesday, principal secretary tribal welfare R.P. Sisodia, along with district collector Pravin Kumar, Superintendent of Police Rahul Dev Sharma and others inspected the security arrangements at NTR Ground in Araku Valley.  Senior police officials were also present at the venue with security being put on high priority due to the presence of Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan.