Telangana assembly opens on stormy note

Police made elaborate arrangements to prevent Congress workers from marching to the state assembly

The winter session of the Telangana legislative assembly yesterday began on a stormy note, with opposition parties resorting to protest marches outside the assembly building.

While the Congress party had called for “Chalo Assembly” [Assembly walk] to highlight the problems of farmers including the waiver of loans, Telugu Desam Party-Bharatiya Janata Party (TDP-BJP) MLAs walked into the state assembly with dried crops in their hands to demand assistance for farmers affected by recent heavy rains.

Arrests made

Police took into custody Congress leaders K. Jana Reddy, state Congress president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and leader of opposition in Legislative Council Mohammad Ali Shabbir when they tried to stage a sit-in protest outside the state assembly.

Some other Congress leaders including former MP Poonam Prabhakar, MLA G. Venkatramanna Reddy and Marri Shashidhar Reddy were rounded up from the Telangana Martyrs memorial when they tried to hold demonstration there. Police made elaborate arrangements to prevent Congress workers from marching to the state assembly from Congress state headquarters, Gandhi Bhavan, in Hyderabad. All the routes leading to the assembly were barricaded and a large number of police officers were deployed.

Similarly, all the roads linking Hyderabad to the districts were sealed.

Hundreds of Congress workers and leaders were taken into preventive custody all over the state to stop them from reaching the city.

K Jana Reddy charged the K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) government with resorting to repressive and autocratic measures to curb the democratic right of peaceful protests.

Meanwhile, TDP-BJP leaders walked from the Lal Bahadur stadium to the assembly building demanding help for farmers who suffered crop damage due to heavy rains this month.

KCR said the government was ready to discuss all the issues in the floor of the House.