Pawan booked for remarks on government volunteer
The village and ward volunteer system was established by the JaganReddy government in August 2019 to ensure that the benefits of welfare schemes reach every doorstep in the villages and towns
A criminal case has been registered by the Vijayawada police in Andhra Pradesh’s NTR district against Tollywood actor and Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan for allegedly making wild allegations against village and ward volunteers appointed by the state government, officials familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Acting on a complaint made by a village volunteer Digamanti Suresh Babu on Wednesday, a case was registered against Pawan Kalyan at the Krishna Lanka police station in Vijayawada under sections 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 505 (2) (making statement conducive to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code, a police officer from the Vijayawada police commissionerate said.
At a public rally at Eluru on Sunday, Pawan Kalyan alleged that village volunteers were helping anti-social elements in women trafficking. He said that the volunteers were targeting women who live alone and were passing their information to anti-social forces who were kidnapping the women.
He said at least 18,000 women have gone missing in the last four years in the state and remained untraceable till now. “Top ranking officials of central intelligence agencies shared with me that the lakhs of village volunteers are collecting information about single, distressed women in the state and are sharing it with women traffickers,” Pawan had said.
“There are a few YSRCP [Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party] top leaders behind these women traffickers. Central intelligence officials asked me to alert the general public here in Andhra Pradesh,” he added.
The village and ward volunteer system was established by the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led state government in August 2019, to ensure that the benefits of welfare schemes reach every doorstep in the villages and towns. More than 2 lakh volunteers were appointed and they are being paid an honorarium of ₹5,000 per month.
While Andhra Pradesh Women’s Commission issued a notice to the Jana Sena Party chief on Monday, asking him to produce evidence for his allegations against volunteers or tender an unconditional apology, volunteers in different parts of the state staged demonstrations against his remarks in the last two days.
Pawan Kalyan, however, continued to attack the volunteers’ system prevalent in the state, in his rallies. On Wednesday, he further alleged that the volunteers were indulging in theft of personal data of the people of the state. He also sought to know why the data of citizens of Andhra Pradesh was being stored with an agency in Nanakramguda.