Kapur Stir in Andhra Pradesh

Who are the Kapus?

The Kapus are primarily an agrarian community, forming a heterogeneous peasant caste. They are residents of the Andhra-Telangana region and are largely Telugu speakers. Kapu sub-castes include Telaga, Balija, Ontari, Munnuru Kapu, Turpu Kapu, etc.

What are they demanding?

The Kapus have long been demanding that they be brought under the ambit of reservations for backward-class communities.
N Chandrababu Naidu, after he was elected the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, had promised to accept their demands and include them under backward classes.
To this extent, he had also promised to set up a Kapu development corporation with a corpus of Rs 100 crore, in November 2015.

However, Mudragada Padmanabham, former Telegu Desam Party (TDP) member and the current leader of the Kapu movement says “The government was supposed to release Rs 5,000 crore for development of the Kapus, as promised by Naidu when he took over as CM. But a mere Rs 50 crore was allotted in the last 16 months. The chief minister is taking us for a ride.”

The Kapus also blame N Chandrababu Naidu for diverting a majority of the state fund towards the development of Amravati, the proposed new capital of the state, instead of fulfilling the promises he made to the Kapus, a majority of whom are living below the poverty line.
The agitators are also dissatisfied with Naidu’s decision to refer the Kapu quota matter to the Manjunatha Commission, which is tasked with submitting a report on how to include the people from the community living below poverty line.

The stir

The Kapu community’s long-standing agitation came to a head on Sunday January 31,2016, at the Ikaya Kapu Garajana meeting organised by the Kapu State Committee in the town of Tuni.
The massive rally was organised after Mudragada's decision to lay siege to roads and railway tracks till a GO including Kapus in backward classes was issued.

The agitators pelted the engine of the Ratnachal Express with stones and also attacked police personnel, before ransacking the railway station. Some bogies were also set ablaze. However, no passenger was injured in the incident, as they had alighted from the train before it was set on fire. A total of 15 policemen, including a senior district police officer, were injured in the violence. The protest forced the authorities to stop all trains running between Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada stations, causing a huge inconvenience to passengers. 

Road traffic on NH16 was also disrupted due to the protests.