Telangana Congress leaders placed under house arrest

Hyderabad, April 7 (IANS) Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief A. Revanth Reddy and other leaders of the opposition party were on Thursday placed under house arrest to foil their protest over electricity tariff hike.

The Congress leaders had given a call for laying siege to Vidyut Soudha, the headquarters of the electricity department to lodge their protest over the recent hike in electricity tariff. They also planned to stage a protest at the Civil Supplies office to demand the state government to procure paddy from farmers.

Police personnel were deployed outside the residence of TPCC chief Revanth Reddy in Jubilee Hills to prevent him from leading the planned protest.

Revanth Reddy tweeted that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is scared as more police force was deployed at his home than at the official residence of the Chief Minister.

TPCC working president Mahesh Kumar Goud, senior leaders Mallu Ravi, Dasoju Sravan, Mohammed Ali Shabbir and others were also placed under house arrest.

Meanwhile, tension prevailed at Vidyut Soudha when leaders and workers of Mahila Congress reached there to stage the protest but were stopped by police.

The Congress leaders entered into an argument with the police for not allowing them to stage a peaceful protest. The protesters sat on the road raising slogans against the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government.

Police personnel physically lifted the protesters and whisked them away in police vehicles.

Senior leader and former MP V. Hanumantha Rao staged the protest at the electricity department office in Amberpet. He along with his supporters went there to submit a memorandum. Since no official was available, they sat at the office to lodge their protest.

Revanth Reddy told reporters that the TRS government is adopting double-standards. He said while TRS was staging protests against the Centre over paddy procurement, Congress party was being denied permission to organise protests.

He vowed to continue the protest against what he called anti-people policies of both the Central and state governments. He said both the governments were making the lives of common man miserable by increasing the prices of petrol, diesel, cooking gas and electricity.

The Congress leader also alleged that both the Central and state governments were playing antics over paddy procurement. He said both the BJP and TRS governments were betraying farmers by not procuring paddy.