The officials of the Andhra Pradesh government had started demolition of houses in Ippatam village of Tadepalli mandal near Mangalagiri in Guntur district on Friday. The officials have issued notices for road widening and a week later, started demotion, much against the wishes of the residents.

The high court had slapped the government by issuing a stay order by evening. Though some houses were damaged by then, the residents of the village heaved a sigh of relief with the court’s intervention. The villagers feel that the high court order was a slap on the face of the government.

The decision of the government to widen the main road of this small village, whose population is just 4000, is seen from the acts of the villagers for the past one year. The villagers have given their lands for Pawan Kalyan to hold Jana Sena’s formation day public meeting in March 2022.

Even after that event, the villagers have been part of the Jana Sena programmes, which might have attracted the ire of Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and his party leaders. Unless for vendetta politics, there is no urgency for the government to widen the road of this small village.

One wonders why Jagan Mohan Reddy is going for such vendetta politics, which is sending wrong signals and uniting his critics. Even if Jagan Mohan Reddy wanted to show his displeasure at the villagers for aligning with the Jana Sena chief, what were the officials doing? Why did not the officials advise him against going for demolition.

Pawan Kalyan had strongly condemned the government’s action of demolishing the houses in the village. He said that people are getting ready to demolish the YSR Congress government in the state.

The Jana Sena chief extended his support to the Ippatam villagers and promised to visit them soon. He said he would stand by them even if Jagan Mohan Reddy and his officials get angry with him and the villagers.