Police foiled a rally by the Congress activists from Gandhi Bhavan to Raj Bhavan to protest against the ‘failures’ of the Union government on the economic front and the failure of the State government in keeping its promises.
Large number of Congress cadre gathered at the Gandhi Bhavan but the police did not allow them to come out of it in a rally. Congress activists resisted the police attempt to arrest them and came on to the road in large numbers. As they tried to sit on the road blocking the traffic they were picked up in batches and moved to different police stations.
Senior leaders, including CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka, AICC Telangana incharge R.C.Khuntia, former minister, K. Jana Reddy, former MP Anjan Kumar Yadav, Indira Shobhan, Zafar Zaveed and youth leaders Anil Kumar Yadav and Vikram Goud were among those arrested.
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‘Economy on downslide’
Later, a group of leaders were allowed to go to Raj Bhavan to meet Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan. The delegation led by Mr. Bhatti Vikramarka and Mr. Khuntia submitted a memorandum to the Governor charging the Modi government with destroying the Indian economy and also accused Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao of blindly supporting all the policies of Mr. Modi.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Bhatti said Indian economy was on downslide with the GDP falling by over 3% and lakhs losing their jobs. But the Modi government was busy managing the media headlines in their favour while totally failing to manage the economy.
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Farmers were badly hit with the agriculture exports falling by over ₹ 4.3 billion while it was the highest ever during the UPA regime, he alleged and added that the incidents of farmers ending their life due to agrarian distress have increased.
Poor indicators
The performance of manufacturing sector was at the lowest in the last two decades, he said.
Mr. Bhatti said the Governor was also appraised of the RTC strike and how the Chief Minister was behaving undemocratically with an eye on RTC properties. He alleged that in the name of taking up irrigation projects KCR has indulged in massive corruption.