The Hyderabad police have arrested Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) A. Revanth Reddy at his Jubilee Hills residence here on Monday afternoon as he tried to proceed to Erravelli village in Siddipet district, where Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s family has a farmhouse, to hold ‘Rythu Rachhabanda’, a protest on the issue of paddy cultivation this rabi season.
A large number of police were deployed around the residence of Mr. Reddy, who is also the MP of Malkajigiri, from the early on Monday to prevent him from proceeding to Erravelli in Markook mandal in Gajwel Constituency “to expose the double standards of the Chief Minister on paddy cultivation this season as he has taken it up on a large-scale in his farmhouse but advised farmers not to go for it.”
The State government has advised farmers not to cultivate paddy this season following the decision of Food Corporation of India (FCI) not to procure parboiled rice, only which is produced in the rabi season in Telangana, henceforth stating that it has the stocks of the custom milled rice sufficient for the next four years. It has also told the farming community that it would not take up paddy procurement for rabi in the wake of FCI decision.
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Tension prevailed at Mr. Revanth Reddy’s residence as jostling took place between the Congress activists and the police following a heated altercation on preventing him from proceeding to Erravelli. The police told Mr. Reddy that his protest at Erravelli has no permission due restrictions imposed by the government on protests, public meetings, gatherings and rallies as part of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19, particularly the Omicron variant.
As the police prevented Mr. Reddy from venturing out of his residence here, their counterparts elsewhere in the State also took Congress activists into custody while proceeding to Erravelli. Several leaders were also kept under ‘house arrest’ as they were not allowed to come out of their houses by the police deployed there.
Those who were not allowed to come out of their houses include senior leaders T. Jeevan Reddy, D. Sridhar Babu, Vikarabad DCC president T. Rammohan Reddy, State Mahila Congress president T. Sunitha Rao and several others. However, national vice president of Kisan Congress M. Kodanda Reddy held Rythu Rachhabanda at Itikyala, a neighbouring village of Erravelli.
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Congress Legislature Party leader M. Bhatti Vikramarka, V. Hanumantha Rao, Madhu Yaskhi, Mallu Ravi, Balaram Naik others condemned the house arrests of the party leaders.
Speaking after his release from Amberpet police station, Mr. Revanth Reddy alleged that TRS and BJP were jointly enacting a drama on the issue of paddy procurement in the State and the day of farmers teaching fitting lesson to both of them is not far away.