An all-party meeting convened by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) on Friday resolved to conduct a ‘silent protest’ near Gun Park before the Assembly building on May 12, in the run-p to the ‘Occupy Dharna Chowk’ programme planned for May 15.
Before that, representations will be given to the district collectors on May 8, to DGP on May 9, and the Chief Secretary on May 10 against the closure of Dharna Chowk as protest site.
The schedule was announced by TJAC chairperson M. Kodandaram after consultations with representatives of political parties including TDP, Congress, CPI, CPI(M) and BJP.
Earlier, he appealed to all the opposition legislators to participate in the silent protest and ‘Occupy Dharna Chowk’ programme.
“If not for the Dharna Chowk, there is no other place from where people’s voice can be heard,” he said.
Telangana Congress committee working president and MLA Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said TRS regime was worse than monarchy, in that the latter provided an opportunity for people to air their grievances, while the former sought to suppress them.
It was an ‘absentee chief-ministership’ of K. Chandrasekhar Rao, which should be ended as was the ‘absentee landlordism’, Mr.Vikramarka said, referring to Mr. Rao’s absence from the Secretariat and recently from the Assembly sessions.
L. Ramana, TDP-Telangana president, suggested that representations be made to higher officials, to build up a momentum for the ‘Occupy Dharna Chowk’ programme on May 15. He accused the Chief Minister of seeking to confuse people as he could not convince them.
CPI Telangana secretary Chada Venkat Reddy appealed to all parties and people’s organisations to mobilise people for the programme on May 15. D. G. Narasimha Rao of the CPI(M) pointed out that it was not appropriate that the Chief Minister meets people of his choice at his camp office, rather than being available for people’s organisations.
Academic and representative of Aam Admi Party P. L. Vishweshwar Rao, BJP leader G. Premender Reddy, and representatives of the CPI(ML) New Democracy, Mala Mahanadu, addressed the meeting.
