With the police launching a crack down on Telangana supporters across the region to foil their proposed march to the State Assembly on Friday and taking hundreds of people into custody, temperatures were running high in Telangana.
Though pressure was mounting from across the political spectrum, the State Government refused to budge from its position of not allowing the gathering of thousands of people in the vicinity of the Assembly.
As reports were pouring in from Nizamabad, Warangal and other districts of precautionary arrests, MlAs of Telanganan Rashtra Samiti, BJP and CPI met Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and urged him to grant the permission for the march.
The Chief Minister, who held a separate meeting with the Ministers from Telangana region, informed his colleagues that permitting the march to the Assembly will create a serious law and order problem.
In Nizamabad police detained BJP workers who tried to take out a procession in support of Friday’s March in Hyderabad. In Mahbubabad town of Warangal district, 15 leaders of Joint Action Committee were arrested. In Warangal the police took leaders of Kakatiya University Students Joint Action Committee in to custody as they were mobilising people for Chalo Assembly stir.
In Hyderabad, State BJP president G Kishan Reddy warned the Government against misusing the police force to suppress the democratic struggle of the people.
“The rulers should not forget that it is not the policemen but the people who cast votes in elections”.
He said that indiscriminate arrests of the people will not stop them from marching to the State Assembly on Friday. He was addressing a meeting of the city BJP in connection with the march.
TJAC convenor Prof Kodanda Ram also addressed the meeting and targeted both Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and leader of Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu for their opposition to Telangana.
In a separate Press conference, TRS MlA T Harish Rao said that if the Government grants permission for the march, the organisers will take full responsibility to maintain peace and order. “Otherwise the Government will be responsible for the consequences,” he said.
The Telugu Desam Telangana Forum has also decided to support the march called by Telangana JAC.
Meanwhile Telangana Advocates JAC on Tuesdasy moved a petition before the AP State Human Rights Commission against the indiscriminate arrests by the police and demanded an end to the police repression. The Commission issued notice to the Director General of Police asking him to file a report by June 13.
This being so, Andhra Pradesh legislative Assembly was also rocked by Telangana issue on Tuesday.
With the TRS members rushing to the podium of the Speaker demanding a resolution in support of Telangana State, Speaker N Manohar adjourned the House twice.
When the trouble
continued, he adjourned the House for the day without transacting any business.