The police have successfully stopped the Congress leaders, including Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A. Revanth Reddy and others from participating in the planned protest in support of sarapanches at Indira Park on Monday.
Tension prevailed at the residence of Mr. Revanth Reddy when police arrested him and shifted him to Bollaram police station. The TPCC president called upon the party activists to burn the effigy of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for arresting Congress leaders, not according permission for protest and misusing the funds of panchayats.
From the wee hours, the police mobilised in large numbers before the houses of the Congress leaders and did not allow them to come out and kept them under house arrest. When leaders like Mr. Revanth Reddy tried to come out of the houses, they were arrested and shifted to police stations. Mr. Revanth Reddy had a heated argument with police on why they were arresting him when he was coming out of his house. He said that police can arrest him at Dharna Chowk if he participated in the dharna but not near his house. He even questioned the arrest of corporator Vijaya Reddy who came to meet him.
Tension prevailed at Gandhi Bhavan as well when police prevented party leaders from proceeding towards Indira Park. Irate over this, the Congress workers burnt the effigy of the Chief Minister and threw it out from the top of the gates.
Some of the sarpanches alleged that the government has diverted funds to be allotted to the panchayats through the 15th Finance Commission without their knowledge. They have even passed on the information to the leaders of various political parties to come to their rescue.
Responding over this, the TPCC gave a call to hold protest at Dharna Chowk near Indira Park and asked sarpanches to participate in the programme in large numbers. However, the police denied permission for the same.
Those arrested include V. Hanumantha Rao, Mallu Ravi, Mahesh Kumar Goud and others.
MLC T. Jeevan Reddy was arrested at Jagital and shifted him to Dharmapuri police station. Several sarpanches were prevented from going to Hyderabad by the police.
