The state government had issued a GO on Thursday to prosecute Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan for his remarks against the volunteers. The order – GO Rt No 16 issued on July 20, said that Pawan Kalyan remarks against volunteers on July 9 at Eluru were “defamatory, derogatory and venomous” against the volunteers and the state government.

Pawan Kalyan had alleged that the volunteers were collecting sensitive data from the people in the name of welfare programmes. He alleged that the volunteers were collecting the data of single women and young girls.

Subsequently the single women and the young girls were trafficked by anti-social elements. Quoting the report of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Pawan Kalyan said that 29,000 women in the state were missing after their data was collected by the volunteers.

Out of them, only 14,000 women were traced by the police, while the remaining 19,000 women were untraced. He held the volunteers and the state government responsible for this human trafficking.

The state government said that the statement had caused damage to the reputation of the volunteers and the state government as well. The statement was also completely false and politically motivated, the government said.

The state government said that several states in the country were studying the volunteer system as it had avoided corruption, involvement of middlemen and the welfare schemes were directly delivered to the doorstep of the people.

Hence, the state government had authorised the public prosecutor to file defamation suit against Pawan Kalyan for his remarks against the volunteers.

It is to be seen how Pawan Kalyan would react to this and where this issue would go in the days to come.