Poondla Lakshmi Prasanna, a woman from Paturu in Kovur area, has finally made the district authorities to take steps for the closure of the belt shop near her house.
The woman, along with her family members, came to the district headquarters town two days ago and has been staging a hunger strike on the premises of the Collectorate since then, demanding closure of the belt shop functioning near her house.
In the past two days, the hunger strike caught attention of the people from different parts of the district and residents, in hundreds, throng the Collectorate to make their representations, beginning with the Grievances Day on Monday.
Regardless of the assurances of officials, the woman stuck to her demand of immediate action and went on a hunger strike, along with her husband Loknath, 8-year-old daughter Lahari and two and a half years old son Hanoq. As the children too were not being fed, the onlookers and fellow petitioners spoke to officials to address their grievance at the earliest.
Lakshmi’s complaint was that their life became miserable ever since the belt shop started functioning near their house. They also lodged a complaint with the Kovur excise officials a few weeks ago. Instead of responding to their plea, the officials were stated to have threatened their family members not to make it an issue, she claimed.
House attackedMeanwhile, the belt shop owner got support from some local residents and attacked Lakshmi’s house. She deplored that their two-wheeler was damaged in the process.
With no hope for getting justice, I decided to come here (the Collectorate) to fight for my rights,” she said. Joint Collector G. Rekharani, after hearing to her plea, on Tuesday issued an order for closure of the belt shop. She also asked the police to provide Lakshmi’s family adequate security. After this, Lakshmi ended her fast, but threatened to resume strike if the belt shop continued to function again.
The family members of Lakshmi also sought action against the excise officials of Kovur for harassing them.
