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Cows’ death exposes turf war

BJP leaders want the goshala to be continued in the city
VIJAYAWADA: Recent death of 21 cows due to food poisoning in a cowshed in Arjuna street, near Kanaka Durga temple, has once again renewed proposals of shifting it to Kothuru Tadepalli in city suburbs. Consumption of stale semolina (Bombai Ravva) supplied by a trader resulted in the fatal food poisoning. And, even after more than a week some cows are still being treated.
The incident created an uproar in the region and a number of associations, political parties and Hindu activists staged protests, dema-nding stern action against the Gosamrakshana committee members who maintain the Goshala (cowshed).
Hence, police officers issued oral instructions to vacate the present cowshed and shift all cows to the committee’s another campus at Kothuru Tadepalli some 10 km from the present Goshala, on Tuesday.
Committee members are already under tremendous pressure from all quarters for their alleged negligence and see this as another attempt by the officials to vacate the Goshala.
However, former Vija-yawada West MLA and BJP leader Velampalli Srinivas and other leaders and committee members vehemently opposed the police’s idea to shift the cows on Tuesday. “But summoning of the committee president Raghuram to the One Town police station on Wednesday indicates probable police action to forcibly vacate us tonight,” felt some committee members. This forced many, including Velampalli and others, to gather at the Goshala again on Wednesday evening. They vowed to abort the suspected police action at any cost.
“This is one clever move by the authorities to shift the Goshala from here on the pretext of preserving public health and handover nearly two acres of land for the Kanaka Durga temple to enable it to construct ramps for the '50 crore worth Mallikarjuna Mahama-ndapam built by them,” alleged one key member of the committee.
“Previously also there were many attempts by the temple authorities as well as other departments to shift the Goshala on the pretext of public interest. But we approached the court and it has ordered that no one can enter the Goshala premises way back in 2008,” said M. Srinivas, an advocate.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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