Police to act tough; TJAC sticks to its guns

Security cover will be thrown around Hyderabad to prevent the march: DGP Law & Order S.A.Huda

Police personnal checking vehicles proceeding towards Hyderabad on the National Highway in Sangareddy, Medak district, on Wednesday. Photo: Mohd. Arif

The police have warned that they mean business in acting firm against any attempts to hold the ‘Telangana March’ on September 30 as it was denied permission.

On the other hand, Telangana Joint Action Committee leaders remained unrelenting despite a meeting with the Deputy Chief Minister, C. Damodar Rajanarasimha, Panchayat Raj Minister K. Jana Reddy and senior Congress leader K. Keshava Rao at the instance of the Chief Minister, N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.

The Director General of Police (Law and Order) S.A. Huda and other senior officers at the police headquarters here told a press conference on Wednesday that a security cover would be thrown around the entire city on that day to prevent the march from taking place. Mr. Huda, however, refused to disclose the strength of force that would be deployed as the police wanted to “play the cards close to their chest.” The operational details cannot be shared to avoid spreading panic, he said.

Inputs on trouble spots

Sources in the police said the services of 10,000 personnel of Central security forces had been requisitioned in addition to the State police for each of the events lined up in the coming days – Ganesh immersion, Telangana March and the UN Convention on biodiversity. The forces would be compartmentalised to avoid fatigue, he said.

Mr. Huda said the police had inputs about trouble spots and people who might like to join the march from other districts. Outsiders will be stopped at six entry points to the city. The police also identified properties that could be targeted. The threshold levels of police are “no violence, no destruction of property.”

Kodandaram’s warning

At a press conference, TJAC chairman M. Kodandaram regretted that the government continued to treat the Telangana March as a law and order issue. He warned that their struggle would be intensified even before the march on September 30 if all those who were arrested and ‘bound over’ in the districts were not ‘unconditionally released’ before Thursday noon.

Notwithstanding their assurances that the protest programme would be a ‘most peaceful march’, over 600 Telangana activists were arrested on the charge that they would storm Hyderabad, from Adilabad, Nalgonda, Karimnagar, Ranga Reddy and Warangal districts, he alleged.

When TJAC leaders met some Ministers and Congress leaders, they had promised to take up the issue of getting permission with Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.