The Amaravati farmers, who have been agitating for over 500 days, are all set to launch a Padayatra to highlight their plight. The farmers are demanding that the Jagan government’s decision to shift the capital out of Amaravati be rescinded. They are opposing the move to set up the executive capital in Visakhapatnam and the judicial capital in Kurnool in Rayalaseema.

The Padayatra will begin from Tullur, a prominent village in the Amaravati area on November 1. The yatra would be held for 45 days and would end at Tirupati by the Sankranthi festival. The yatra would cover over 400 kilo meters. Politicians, farmers, farm labourers, civil society leaders and others would undertake the padayatra to Tirupati. The Amaravati JAC, which will organize the yatra, is working out the nitty gritty.

The yatra is being planned to breathe life into the agitation and highlight the problems of the farmers of the region. As part of the padayatra, awareness meetings would be held and round tables would be organied at different places. The protesters will expose the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government and its decisions. While a yatra may not be able to settle the issue, but it will surely highlight the problems of the farmers, a leader of the Amaravati Joint action committee said.

The yatra assumes significance in the wake of the recent panchayal, MPTC and ZPTC elections, where the YSRCP has routed the TDP. In all the Amaravati villages, the YSRCP has won handsomely. Since then the government has been claiming that the people at large were with the government’s three-capitals policy. To prove this wrong, the padayatra is being planned to cover a large part of the state, the organizers said.