‘Chalo Sircilla’ passes off peacefully amid security

Telangana Congress leaders denied permission for meeting

Word of comfort: Former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar addressing the villagers of Nerella .

The Chalo Sircilla programme, called by the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee to protest against the police “torture of Dalits and other villagers” of Nerella, Jillela and Ramachandrapur villages of Thangalapalli mandal, went off smoothly amid tight police security in the district and the adjoining Karimnagar district.

The Sircilla Rajanna police have detained a few villagers after they set ablaze a lorry that ran over a person on July 2. The villagers were arrested and allegedly beaten up badly and threatened by the police.

The district authorities denied permission for a public meeting after the TPCC leaders announced the Chalo Sircilla programme and sought permission for the meeting. The authorities cited law and order problem and the absence of an open place to conduct the meet.

The TPCC leaders had approached the High Court seeking permission for the meeting but the case did not come up for hearing on Monday.

The TPCC leaders, led by former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar reached Karimnagar on Sunday night and camped there.

Visit jail

On Monday morning, Ms. Kumar and TPCC leaders met and consoled the victims lodged in the Karimnagar jail under the ‘Mulakath’ programme, and addressed the media at the party office flaying police “high-handedness”.